Thread by @PekingMike

THREAD: The long, sad history of presidential siblings, children and in-laws who somehow find incredible business opportunities in the People's Republic of China. Have a seat. Buckle up.

Let's start with Neil Bush, brother of 43 and son of 41. He's been a fixture in China for years. Being the son of George H.W. Bush, America's top envoy in the 1970s, served him well. In 2002 he got a great gig (for $400k) to consult for a certain Chinese company....

That company? Grace Semiconductor, co-founded by Jiang Mianheng, son of Jiang Zemin, the president at the time. Who was president of the US then? George W. Bush, Neil's brother. See this LAT story:
latimes.com/archives/la-xp…

Jeb Bush, Neil's brother, joined in in 2013, taking an investment from HNA in Britton Hill Advisors, a company he set up after stepping down from the Florida Governorship. There was no Bush in the White House then and his own presidential campaign was still in the future.

Jeb Bush, Neil's brother, joined in in 2013, taking an investment from HNA in Britton Hill Advisors, a company he set up after stepping down from the Florida Governorship. There was no Bush in the White House then and his own presidential campaign was still in the future.

Obama's half-brother lived in China as well during Obama's administration, but big time businessman? Maybe not:
content.time.com/time/world/art…

So let's skip to the Trump administration. As the New York Times reported in Jan. 2017, Jared Kushner was trying to sell his company's flagship 666 Fifth Avenue property to Anbang in 2016 and into 2017.

Anbang was at the time under enormous scrutiny for its whacky shareholding structure, and it soon collapsed, its charismatic CEO and Kushner interlocutor Wu Xiaohui behind bars. See the @Jo_Becker @susannecraig @JesseDrucker scoop here:
nytimes.com/2017/01/07/us/…

@Jo_Becker @susannecraig @JesseDrucker Then there was Jared's sister, Nicole Meyer, who traveled to China in May 2017 to pitch investor visas to Chinese in order to finance an apartment complex in Jersey City. Her slide presentation was Trump-infused. See this @HernandezJavier story:
nytimes.com/2017/05/06/wor…

@Jo_Becker @susannecraig @JesseDrucker @HernandezJavier Then there's Ivanka Trump herself, getting trademark after trademark in China for her product lines during the early years of the Trump presidency, with some being awarded around major events in Sino-US relations..see @suilee story here:
nytimes.com/2018/05/28/bus…

@Jo_Becker @susannecraig @JesseDrucker @HernandezJavier @suilee That brings us to the news of the day on Hunter Biden. Joe Biden was never president, but he aspires to be, and his son has gone into business with a major Chinese private equity firm. He owns 10 percent of it through a DC-based LLC.

@Jo_Becker @susannecraig @JesseDrucker @HernandezJavier @suilee The firm, Shanghai based BHR, teams up with state-owned financial firms like Bank of China (it's biggest shareholder) to invest in, well, some private Chinese companies but also a lot of state-owned Chinese companies as well. "Private equity" in China is, well, complicated.

@Jo_Becker @susannecraig @JesseDrucker @HernandezJavier @suilee Trump today alleged that Hunter Biden got $1.5 billion from the Chinese firm. That is false, but we walk you through what we do know in this story written by @SharonLNYT and me. Please have a read:
nytimes.com/2019/10/03/us/…

@Jo_Becker @susannecraig @JesseDrucker @HernandezJavier @suilee @SharonLNYT I'm sure I missed some. Herbert Hoover did a lot of business in China around the turn of the last century, but that doesn't count. Did US Grant cut some side deal with Li Hongzhang on his Asia swing post presidency? I don't think so. I just wanted to put Li Hongzhang in a tweet.