© Andrew Harnik/AP
In this file photo, Chinese president Xi Jinping, center, waves after he is greeted by Ambassador Peter A. Selfridge, left, Chief of Protocol of the United States, upon his arrival at the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 31, 2016.
China influenced American policies for decades through a covert network of "old friends" — sympathizers and agents — who had penetrated the highest levels of the U.S. government and financial institutions before the Trump administration, according to an academic linked to the Chinese government.
Di Dongsheng, a professor and associate dean of the School of International Studies at Renmin University in Beijing, also suggested in a Nov. 28 speech
that China's Communist Party helped Hunter Biden, a son of presumptive President-elect Joseph R. Biden, obtain Chinese business deals.
On influencing the United States, Mr. Di said, he could not provide further details about the work of Chinese agents without compromising their identities. However, he said
President Trump's trade war with China upset decades of close ties between Washington and Beijing that the agent network facilitated.
Disputes such as the Navy's EP-3 midair collision with a Chinese jet in the western Pacific in 2001 and the mistaken U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Serbia in 1999 were resolved within months because of the influence operations.
"Now, I'm going to drop a bomb: Because we had people up there inside America's core circle of power, we had our old friends," said Mr. Di, adding that he needed to speak carefully because "I can't sell out these people."
A video of the remarks was posted on Mr. Di's Weibo social media account but
was quickly removed. Copies of the video, however, survived and went viral.
Comment: No doubt many nations could boast the same. Israel, for example. But note that through all of Russiagate, they couldn't find one Russian to make such claims. Yet while harping on about non-existent Russian collusion, relationships like the above were ongoing among the "establishment" politicians. You can't get much more hypocritical than that.
Tucker Carlson covered this story last night:
Comment: Counting paper ballots is in the works, at least for crucial states in current dispute. Creating a full nation paper audit is only as good as the intentions, methodologies and honesty to actualize it. And, so far, not so good.