Watchdog files complaint, slams Biden nonprofit for accepting Beijing funds
05/29/2020 / By Michael Alexander
A political watchdog is now calling for an investigation into the source of funding for one of presumptive Democratic Nominee Joe Biden’s nonprofit organizations, namely the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement.
This development came after the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a nonprofit public interest group, filed a complaint with the Department of Education, Wednesday, demanding that it investigate the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and the Penn Biden Center for failing to disclose millions of dollars in donations from China.
The NLPC — an organization that promotes ethics in public life and government and corporate accountability — argued in its complaint that the university and the Penn Biden Center both violated a federal law requiring the disclosure of the source of all donations over $250,000.
The NLPC, in a statement posted on its website, said that from 2017 to 2018, the university received over 70 million USD from China, of which 22 million USD was listed as “Anonymous.”
The NLPC complaint also noted that the Penn Biden Center co-sponsored the Penn China Research Symposium on January 31 of this year, whose program included opening remarks by Ambassador Huang Ping, Consul-General of the People’s Republic of China in New York.
According to the NLPC, this event coincided with China’s coverup of the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in the city of Wuhan in the Hubei province.
“It is apparent that the Penn Biden Center is beholden to China for its operations,” Peter Flaherty, NLPC chair, said, adding that this has an “insidious effect” on the shaping of the programs that the nonprofit group produces.
NLPC counsel Paul Kamenar, meanwhile, blasted the Biden nonprofit, noting that its “flagrant violations” over the years are “simply outrageous.” (Related: Biden unleashes racist rhetoric during interview, says African-Americans who support Trump “ain’t black”.)
The Penn Biden Center has repeatedly blown off inquiries into its funding, with one spokesman for the Center telling the Washington Free Beacon during one such inquiry that it is “a question for my colleagues at the main university.”
The UPenn has denied NLPC’s allegations, with university spokesman Ron Ozio noting in a statement that the Penn Biden Center has never directly received any of the Chinese donations at the center of the controversy.
“The University has never solicited any funds for the Penn Biden Center. Since its inception in 2017, it has received a total of three unsolicited gifts totaling $1,100. There have been no gifts to the Penn Biden Center from anyone in China,” Ozio said Tuesday.
The Penn Biden Center is not the first Biden-linked nonprofit to arouse controversy regarding its finances.
According to official government and tax records, nonprofit group Delaware Center for Justice received a $166,000 federal grant in September 2014 — about the same time it appointed then Vice President Joe Biden’s daughter as executive director.
The Washington Examiner, in a report, said the Biden-headed nonprofit was selected for a competitive two-year grant by the U.S. Department of Justice through the federal Edward Byrne Memorial grant program, which Biden himself helped steer significant funding to during his stint as vice president and senator.
As noted by the Examiner, Biden’s daughter, Ashley Biden, 38, had been associate director of the Delaware Center for Justice for about a year at the time. Two months after the grant selection, she was promoted to executive director.
Tom Anderson, director of the NLPC’s Government Integrity Project, said the timing of the grant’s approval and the younger Biden’s ascent in the organization provides enough impetus for government agencies to conduct an investigation to check if the elder Biden improperly used his political influence to steer the grant to his daughter.
According to the Examiner, their attempts to contact Ashley Biden have not been successful, and that the Biden campaign did not respond to their request for comment.
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Tagged Under: Beijing, Biden, CCP, Chinese Communist Party, communist China, corruption, democrats, elections, funding, government, Joe Biden, politics, society, Trump
