US-China Relations - 44. page

As China’s state media is picking up media coverage on the U.S. election, the Chinese readers are not receiving reports from all sides. On November 7, Ellen Weintraub, the former Chair of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) who is currently acting as the Democrat Commissioner of the FEC, had an interview with CNN. China’s mouthpiece Huanqiu published the interview in Chinese on its website with the title “Chairman of the US Federal Election Commission: No Evidence of Voter Fraud and Illegal Votes Being Cast.” The article quoted the following statement that Weintraub made: “State and local officials and poll workers throughout the country really stepped up.  … There is no evidence of any kind of voter fraud. There is no evidence of illegal votes being cast. … There really has been no evidence of fraud. None of the complaints have any evidence of fraud attached to them.”

However, Huanqiu misstated Ellen Weintraub’s title as the Chairman of the FEC. Based on the FEC website, the FEC Chair is James E. “Trey” Trainor, III.

Ironically, Trey Trainor confirmed during an interview with Newsmax TV on Nov 6, that there was voter fraud. He commented that locations such as Pennsylvania that did not grant access to observers to watch the ballot counting process could be instances of voter fraud.

“I do believe that there has been voter fraud taking place in these places,” he said. “Otherwise why wouldn’t they allow the observers to go in?”

Huanqiu didn’t cover Trey Trainer’s statements in its article.

Source:
1. Huanqiu, November 7, 2020
https://world.huanqiu.com/article/40bgF8EdRGM
2. CNN, November 7, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-biden-election-results-11-07-20/h_8fb33ec91239500dfba354e3541b7aa6
3. Newsmax, November 6, 2020
https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/trey-trainor-fec-trump-2020-election/2020/11/06/id/995772/

The result of the U.S. presidential election is undecided. The Chinese state media, which originally strictly controlled the reporting on the election, recently changed and even started to report on the differences in the vote projections that different U.S. main stream media made and on the protests in different U.S. cities.

A Chinese news reporter confirmed that Beijing had previously issued orders requiring that news related to the U.S. presidential election must be “coordinated” and the source must be an official media like Xinhua. There was to be no reprinting or follow-up on foreign media reports without authorization. News reports must comply with the statements from China’s spokesperson and strictly guard against messages or actions that might instigate anti-U.S. or boycott the U.S. sentiment.

Starting on November 5, Chinese state media significantly increased coverage of the U.S. presidential election. The focus is on the delay in the counting of votes, increases in mail-in votes, and on early voters resulting from COVID 19, and the “chaos” it has created. The media also showed footage of the protests of both Trump and Biden supporters.

Although the official media deliberately amplified that the vote was undecided, some Chinese people opted to track the election process on the Internet for days. A Beijing citizen observed that state media was too slow and only suitable for seniors. If anyone really wanted to track it in real time, he could watch it on the U.S. media sites directly.

Source: Central News Agency, November 7, 2020
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/202011070070.aspx

Global Times recently reported that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced sanctions against U.S. companies including Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Raytheon. The sanctions were in response to the U.S. Arms sales to Taiwan. This happened five days after the United States announced its US$1.8 billion defense sales to Taiwan for a HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System), SLAM-ER (Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response) extended range air-to-surface missiles, F-16 fighter jet new reconnaissance pod, and more. The Chinese announcement indicated these U.S. companies (and individuals) played a very ugly role in threatening China’s national interests. The deal may also extend to General Atomics’ unmanned aircraft and Boeing’s land-based harpoon anti-ship missiles, which may add another US$24 to the sales. China took this as a serious violation of the ‘One China’ principle and the provisions of the three Sino-US Joint Communiqués. It was also a serious interference in China’s internal affairs.

Source: Global Times, October 26, 2020
https://world.huanqiu.com/article/40RU7MbCRhr

After the New York Post reported that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) funneled money to Hunter Biden and his family, Apple Daily reported that Michael Lin (林俊良) was the broker who connected Hunter Biden with Beijing.

Lin is a talented but low-key Taiwanese businessman. He was born in a normal family and graduated from Yale University. He has worked in multiple investment firms in the U.S., mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. One of his China experiences includes working in the Internal Investment Department of the Peking University Founders Group, a large technology conglomerate in China which has the backing of Peking University and a good connection with high-ranking CCP officials.

Lin has a good connection with both the Kuomintang (a political party in Taiwan) and the CCP in Beijing. He moved to live in Beijing in 2005.

Lin co-founded the Thornton Group with James Bulger, son of William Bulger, an American former Democratic politician who served the President of the Massachusetts Senate for 18 years.

Lin was also the head of the Asian operations of the State Legislative Leaders Foundation (SLLF). He used both the Thornton Group and the SLLF to conduct business in China, leveraging his connection between the Founder Group and Peking University, then to the National People’s Congress, and then to the top CCP leaders and officials in charge of Foreign Affairs.

Lin arranged Hunter Biden, the Vice President of Rosemont Seneca, to visit China in 2010. This was Hunter’s first trip to China. Hunter met several high-ranking officials in China’s financial institutions. Many of them later became Hunter’s business partners.

The most successful deal that Lin brokered for Hunter was the BHR Partners; that is Bohai Harvest RST (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Co., Ltd.

According to the person who supplied the information, Lin is still actively connected with the Biden family.

Source: Apple Daily, October 17, 2020
https://tw.appledaily.com/headline/20201017/U4XZ4PRGLBD6JIV2HMWJX5IK4I/

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed to adopt a new rule that will require that, if a foreign government sponsors any content in a TV or radio station, the station must make a public disclosure.

The decision was announced on Monday October 26. The Commission’s statement said, “the American people deserve to know when a foreign government has paid for programming, or furnished it for free, so that viewers and listeners can better evaluate the value and accuracy of such programming.”

The new rule “requires a specific disclosure at the time of broadcast if a foreign governmental entity has paid a radio or television station, directly or indirectly, to air material, or if such an entity has provided the programming to the station free of charge as an inducement to broadcast the material.” While the Commission’s current rules require a sponsorship identification when a station has been compensated for airing particular material, the rules require disclosure of the sponsor’s name and usually do not require that a station determine whether the source of the programming is in fact a foreign government or mandate that the connection to a foreign government is disclosed to the public at the time of broadcast.

Jessica Rosenworcel, an FCC commissioner, said in her written statement, “Right now, we are awash in reports that foreign actors are attempting to influence our political process and democratic elections in the United States. We also know that foreign entities are purchasing time on broadcast stations in markets across the country, including Russian government-sponsored programming right here in our nation’s capital. But it’s mindboggling that the FCC has yet to update its policies … to ensure that the public knows when foreign actors who may wish to do us harm are paying to access our airwaves and influence our citizens.”

In September, the FCC’s chair Ajit Pai proposed rules to ensure transparency of foreign government sponsored broadcast content. He said, “with some station content coming from the likes of China and Russia, it is time to update our rules and shed more sunlight on these practices.”

“Today we begin to fix this situation. We propose to adopt specific disclosure requirements for broadcast programming that is paid for or provided by a foreign government or its representative. This is about basic transparency and it frankly shouldn’t have taken us so long.” said Rosenworcel.

Source: FCC, October 26, 2020
https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-seeks-require-id-foreign-government-sponsored-programming