What about China's influence on US politics?

Politics
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It recently came out that Senator Feinstein, ranking Democrat and former chair of the intelligence committee employed a Chinese spy who acted as her driver and liaison with Asian groups in the San Francisco area for many years.

At the same time that the Chinese spy was operating in Feinstein’s office, her husband was making millions in investments related to China:

Of course Feinstein is hardly alone with dubious relations with China. Bill Clinton’s 1996 campaign received large amounts of illegal campaign funds from China. Johnny Chung was convicted for these payments, but no one who received the payments was ever prosecuted.

The Obama campaign was notorious for accepting contributions even when they appeared to be from illegal foreign sources, which almost certainly included China:

The Obama campaign eventually paid a record fine for its campaign abuses, but the fine may have been for only a small fraction of the contributions:
https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/01/07/obama-campaign-fined-big-for-hiding-donors-keeping-illegal-donations

The Democrats and their supporters in the media have been foaming at the mouth about Russia collusion and influence. What about China?

Is the fact that China is still ruled by Communists mean any influence is all okay since it is just leftists helping leftists?

2

Wok the vote.

1 Like
3

state secrets on fortune cookies…

4

Yep, leftists helping leftists as promoted by Bill Maher.

5

Campaign finance enforcement has been a big problem for some time now. That is but one of the many reasons the McCain Feingold bill is such a joke. Good intentions, I don’t doubt that but……….it didn’t accomplish jack squat, campaign money practically runs this country. Citizen’s United ain’t helping.

6

you give Trump too much credit if you think he came up with that wall idea on his own…

7

There are already laws on the books against accepting illegal contributions, but they are rarely enforced. That is what happened with Clinton and Obama’s funding from China.

Do you think that the media would be so unconcerned if the spies and foreign money involved Trump or other Republicans?

8

According to that article it does not say Feinstein’s driver was ever a spy, just some guy his family knew would come by when he came back to china to visit. The guy was part of China’s Ministry of State Security but there’s no indication the driver knew this, or if he did, that he could do anything about it.

I didn’t read any of the other links since they’re made-up ■■■■ also, most likely.

9

The Obama campaign stuff was far less egregious than that hyperventilating article makes it out to be.

The Clinton campaign controversy had a huge investigation, I remember that much and lots of media attention.

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The Obama campaign took donations from anyone with a credit card number. There was no check on name, address, security codes, etc. They had more security on purchases of tee shirts than on the campaign contributions. If confronted with obvious fraud they would refund the donation, but they made no attempt to prevent foreign donations. Here is one description:

No presidential campaign has ever before received such a gargantuan sum of money from unidentified contributors. The campaign’s records reveal big contributors with names like “Doodad Pro” (employer: “Loving,” profession: “You”) and “Good Will” (same employer and profession). Both donated via credit card. Other reports have suggested that some donations come from overseas – raising the question of whether Obama is accepting donations from foreigners, another violation of federal law.

There are good reason to believe that a lot of the untraceable donations came from China:

https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/obama-campaign-raises-illegal-cash-overseas/

The media is making a big deal about $100,000 that the Russians allegedly spent on Facebook ads, but they virtually ignored massive campaign funding abuses by Obama. “Wok my vote” has been around for a long time.

11

Did Feinstein’s driver ever register as a foreign agent?

The media makes a big deal with one meeting with an alleged Russian representative, while Feinstein had an employee for over a decade who was in direct communication with the Chinese spy agency.

I know, it is all between leftists, so no big deal.

16

One quarter of one percent of the money he raised could not be traced. Doesn’t sound like a helluva lot of influence to me. And as Trump supporters have told me, your suspicions are proof of nothing.

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I knew this was a “whataboutism” thread, but thank you for confirming it. What’s the weather like in St Petersburg?

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Here are details from 2012:

In September, the Obama campaign got 1.8 million donations from small contributors who did not break the $200 threshold requiring that their information be reported to the Federal Election Commission. They gave the campaign 98 percent of the $181 million it raised that month, a figure vastly higher than its take in any previous month. In 1997, we learned — too late — that the Clinton campaign had relied heavily on thinly disguised Chinese government money for much of its early blitz of issue ads in the 1996 election. . . Obama.com gets 2,000 visits a day, two-thirds of which are from foreigners. Is it a giant money-laundering operation to feed foreign money into the Obama campaign?

The Obama campaign had essentially zero checks on credit card/ gift card donations under the $200 limit. Gift cards purchased with cash are essentially untraceable. Foreign governments and individuals could and most likely did give millions dollars in untraceable funds simply by making them as a large number of small donations.

The audit that resulted in large fines did not investigate these issues. Mickey Mouse with an address of Disneyland was fine so long as the alias did not exceed the total contribution limits for the campaign, even if the contributions really came from the government of China.

19

St. Petersburg is hot and humid:
https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/st-petersburg-fl/33712/weather-forecast/332287

How’s the weather in Shanghai?

20

Recent revelations indicate that China’s influence is not limited to Clinton and Obama and extends to Republican leaders as well:

. . .Biden and his son, Hunter, traveled to Beijing in December 2013, and the vice president was criticized for “going soft” on China on critical issues like the South China Sea and trade. Ten days after they left, an investment firm owned by Hunter Biden scored a $1.5 billion private equity deal from the Chinese government, he explained.

"If Joe Biden gets a $1,500 campaign contribution or a $1,500 gift or his wife does, it has to be disclosed. But if your kids or a sibling or a parent scores $1.5 billion from a foreign government, they’re not required to disclose it. That’s gotta change," Schweizer said. . .

Schweizer also pointed out that [Republican Senate Majority Leader] McConnell is married to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, whose family is in the shipping industry and is “basically completely dependent” on remaining in the good graces of the Chinese government.

In 2008, he said, Chao’s father, James Chao, gave McConnell a gift of somewhere between $5 million and $25 million.

"What people don’t realize is, where did that money come from? It came from Chinese government, specifically the China state shipbuilding corporation, who’s the business partner with the Chao’s. It’s the largest military contractor in China," Schweizer said. "If you look at Mitch McConnell’s record in the Senate, he has become increasingly soft on China, as it relates to military issues or trade issues."

Do we have the best government that Chinese money can buy?