Then-Vice President Biden boasted about his Harvard-educated niece previously studying Chinese and living in China while delivering a speech in 2011 touting \u2018a rising China\u2019 being \u2018a positive, positive development, not only for China but for America\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n
Biden gave a shout-out to Casey Owens, who was concluding her stint as a special assistant for the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue at the Treasury Department, while delivering remarks to the opening session of the group, according to an email chain that was reviewed by Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n
Owens, the daughter of Biden\u2019s sister, emailed then-Vice President Biden\u2019s \u2018Auks\u2019 alias email address in May 2011, thanking him for the \u2018memorable day\u2019 and said it was \u2018very, very humbling\u2019 watching him speak.<\/p>\n
\u2018And your remarks. That was really something else, Uncle Joe. What a way to exit the Treasury,\u2019 Owens said, according to an email from Hunter Biden\u2019s abandoned laptop. \u2018I\u2019m simply happy to be close to you, and I just wanted to say thank you for including me.\u2019<\/p>\n
In addition to the email from Owens to the elder Biden, a transcript from Biden\u2019s speech was included in the email chain, highlighting what Biden thought about a \u2018rising China.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018We cannot claim the same number of Americans in China, but our 100,000 Strong Initiative will dramatically increase the number of young Americans living and studying in China,\u2019 Biden said.\u00a0 \u2018As a matter of fact, my niece who \u2014 excuse me, as we say in the Senate, a point a personal privilege \u2014 who graduated from Harvard not too long ago, works for Secretary Geithner, she did exactly what we hope another 100,000 will do: She studied Chinese and went and lived in China and is now devoted to making sure the relationship gets better and better and better.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018As a young member of a Foreign Relations Committee, I wrote and I said and I believed then what I believe now:\u00a0That a rising China is a positive, positive development, not only for China but for America and the world writ large,\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n
The \u2018100,000 Strong Initiative\u2019 that Biden mentioned refers to the goal then-President Obama set near the beginning of his administration in hopes of \u2018sending 100,000 American students to China in the next 4 years to learn Mandarin, to experience Chinese culture, and to learn about the hospitality of the Chinese people, while they serve as ambassadors for the United States in China.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in May 2010 she was \u2018pleased to sign\u2019 an agreement with State Councilor Liu Yandong, who has held some of the highest positions in the CCP.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fox News Digital previously reported on how Yandong would meet with representatives from the Congressional Black Caucus and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) a few years later and announced student scholarships.<\/p>\n
\u2018Our U.S.-China relationship must extend beyond the halls of government to our homes, our businesses, and our schools,\u2019 Clinton continued. \u2018And these exchanges really offer the opportunity for people to connect and collaborate, and they remind us of how much we have in common.\u2019<\/p>\n
During Owens\u2019 tenure at Treasury, she repeatedly emailed Hunter Biden and his now-former business partner Eric Schwerin about China Investment Corporation (CIC), China\u2019s largest sovereign wealth fund, Fox News Digital previously reported. A former business associate confirmed to Fox News Digital on Monday that Owens was \u2018definitely a resource\u2019 Hunter used and that a CIC meeting did occur.<\/p>\n
On April 12, 2010, Owens emailed Hunter and Schwerin a schedule from her Treasury email address, highlighting a CIC investment conference that took place a couple of weeks earlier.<\/p>\n
\u2018FYI on recent CIC investment conference at a resort in Sanya, on Hainan Island, over the weekend of March 27-28,\u2019 Owens wrote.<\/p>\n
A Thornton Group press release dated that same day \u2013 April 12, 2010 \u2013 said the company\u2019s chairman, James Bulger, and Hunter visited Beijing just three days earlier and met with CIC Chief Investment Officer Gao Xiqing, among others, according to the Republican Senate report released in September 2020.<\/p>\n
A feature article about Owens published months later by the Tower Hill Bulletin said she and her team had traveled to Beijing in May 2010 with a U.S. delegation led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.<\/p>\n
A photo of Owens in the article showed her receiving a \u2018small jade vase as a birthday gift\u2019 from China\u2019s then-vice minister of finance, Zhu Guangyao. According to the Ministry of Finance website, its primary function is to implement the decisions and policies of the Chinese Communist Party in the area of public finance.<\/p>\n
The Bulletin article said Owens\u2019 team and Zhu \u2018worked very closely during the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Weeks after returning from Beijing, Owens emailed Schwerin a Bloomberg News article about CIC, titled, \u2018China\u2019s CIC May Post Record Year for 2009 as Markets Recover,\u2019 which Schwerin then forwarded to Hunter on July 23, 2010.<\/p>\n
Owens, who now goes by Castello, left the Treasury in July 2011 and is currently an executive at Starbucks, according to her LinkedIn profile.<\/p>\n
Owens isn\u2019t the only member of her immediate family with ties to China. Fox News Digital previously reported on how her dad, John \u2018Jack\u2019 Owens, pleaded for Hunter to help him secure a business license to expand his telemedicine company in China, saying it needed to be \u2018secured very quickly.\u2019<\/p>\n
The elder Owens emailed Hunter on May 9, 2014, informing him that his companies, MediGuide America and MediGuide Insurance Services International (MISI), reached a \u2018serious stage\u2019 in negotiations with a China-based insurance company, but said he won\u2019t be able to \u2018seal this deal\u2019 without a \u2018Chinese Business License.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Time pressures are very tight, plus the fact that we do not yet have one has caused a slight credibility bump in the company\u2019s mind. This all translates into a need for a Business License, and one secured very quickly,\u2019 Owens wrote. \u2018While this might seem to be a mundane task, I have come to understand that matters such as a Business License can end up taking an inordinate amount of time\u2026..time we just do not have.\u2019<\/p>\n
Owens continued by saying he would be \u2018most appreciative of any help.\u2019 Hunter Biden replied less than a hour later and said, \u2018Working on it-back to you ASAP.\u2019 The younger Biden then forwarded Owens\u2019 email to Thornton Group Chairman James Bulger, the nephew of mobster Whitey Bulger and co-founder of the Thornton Group.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also sent it to Michael Lin, a Taiwanese-American businessman who has worked with the State Legislative Leaders Foundation (SLLF), a nonprofit that has been partnered since 2015 with the Chinese People\u2019s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, a propaganda group that pushes Chinese Communist Party (CCP) messaging. Lin and Bulger both arranged Hunter Biden\u2019s first business trip to China in April 2010, the Washington Free Beacon reported.<\/p>\n
\u2018See email below. It\u2019s from my Uncle Jack. Is there a way we can help him expedite this? Time is of the essence here,\u2019 Hunter Biden wrote.<\/p>\n
Bulger responded the next morning and said he would discuss with Lin how they can \u2018help.\u2019 Three days later, Bulger sent an email to Hunter saying, \u2018Me and Michael had a call with Jack this morning I think we have a solution for hi[s] China problem.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Michael and Ran are researching the regs and laws right now but our Thornton WOFE will likely be ok for Jacks company to use,\u2019 Bulger continued, likely referring to the wholly foreign-owned enterprise of the Thornton Group, the company Bulger and Lin co-founded.<\/p>\n
A few days later, Bulger sent an email to Owens and Lin, and copied Hunter Biden, asking Owens to \u2018give us until Monday to review a few more laws and regulations in Beijing.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018I may have you answer a few question[s] on Monday so we can get specific with the appropriate authority\u2019s in China,\u2019 Bulger wrote.<\/p>\n
It is unclear whether Bulger and Lin were able to successfully secure a business license for Owens or whether Thornton\u2019s \u2018WOFE\u2019 sufficed for China\u2019s laws. However, MediGuide\u2019s website says it has come to \u2018an agreement with AnyHealth Shanghai.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018MediGuide and Any Health intend to expand MediGuide\u2019s business in China under the name of \u2018MediGuide China,\u2019\u2019 the website reads. \u2018AnyHealth Shanghai will be legally representing MediGuide International LLC in China. \u2018 It is unclear if AnyHealth Shanghai is the same company referenced in the emails.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and Owens for comment but did not receive a response.<\/p>\n
Fox News\u2019 Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.<\/p>\n\n
Then-Vice President Biden boasted about his Harvard-educated niece previously studying Chinese and living in China while delivering a speech in 2011 touting \u2018a rising China\u2019 being \u2018a positive, positive development, not only for China but for America\u2026\u2019 Biden gave a shout-out to Casey Owens, who was concluding her stint as a special assistant for the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":18018,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}