7-5-21 Kurt Campbell, whom President Joe Biden tapped to run Asia policy at the National Security Council, was a director at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations through May 2020.
One intelligence analyst who studies China's influence efforts in the West said that the National Committee's soft-on-China position helps open Chinese markets to the National Committee's corporate donors, a group of more than 50 companies that includes firms like BlackRock (handling $trillions as an investment fund), Blackstone, Citigroup and Mastercard. The National Committee is also likely to have access to the Biden administration, where it could advocate for closer economic ties to China. "The National Committee is more that of a business league for U.S. companies in China [and] PRC companies in the U.S.," said Anders Corr, an intelligence analyst and editor of the Journal of Political Risk. He said the group operates more as "a two-way unregistered foreign agent networking venue than strictly as a U.S. nonprofit organization."
The National Committee has faced accusations that in its push to develop closer ties to China, it glosses over China's human rights abuses and foreign influence efforts. The National Committee's conciliatory approach to China is evidenced in several recent events and media interviews.
Stephen Orlins, the president of the National Committee, also spoke at the event hosted by the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation. He spoke on a panel with the president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, a top organization in the Communist Party's united front system.
Orlins heaped praise on Biden's Asia policy team during an interview with Chinese state-run television network CGTN on Jan. 23. Orlins listed Campbell as a "terrific" China expert in the administration who he expects to help repair the "four-year nightmare" in U.S.-China relations left over by the Trump administration. Campbell has come under scrutiny over his ties to China. The Free Beacon reported that Campbell was also vice chairman of the U.S.-China Strong Foundation, another corporate-backed nonprofit with links to Chinese influence groups….
"To achieve its strategic goal of displacing the U.S. as the preeminent world power, China is coercing and co-opting U.S. business, shamelessly stealing our technology, and trying to influence U.S. policy through both legal and illicit means," Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, told the Free Beacon….
Ray Dalio, a hedge fund titan and longtime donor to the National Committee, recently downplayed human rights concerns in China, saying they would not prevent him from investing in the country. "I don't really understand, and I don't study the human rights issues. I follow what the laws are on those particular things," Dalio told the Wall Street Journal in May….
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the National Committee organized visits for members of Congress and staffers to China to meet with Chinese officials and business leaders. The all-expenses-paid junkets brought the lawmakers in contact with Chinese government officials, and officials from China-U.S. Exchange Foundation and other front groups. The National Committee hosted the events with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Aspen Institute and Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which has also cultivated ties with the Chinese government. https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/top-biden-allies-worked-for-group-with-close-ties-to-chinese-communist-party/
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