Report: Top Joe Biden Aide Helped Found Think Tank ‘Heavily Influenced’ by Beijing

A White House staffer leading President Joe Biden’s policy towards Asia previously founded a think tank that had strong links to the Chinese communist regime.

The Washington Free Beacon reported on Wednesday that Kurt Campbell, Biden’s choice to serve as chief coordinator for Asia policy on the National Security Council, helped found the U.S.-China Strong Foundation. The think tank, which seems to have been closed down, promoted expanding cultural and economic ties between the United States and Beijing.

Campbell’s organization, however, caught the attention of some observers not for its advocacy in favor of student language exchange programs between the U.S. and China, but rather for its support of Beijing’s political and economic programs.

The foundation has promoted the Chinese army and China’s Belt and Road Initiative—deemed a national security threat by U.S. officials. It has also partnered with the Confucius Institute U.S. Center, an educational nonprofit organization that the State Department designated as a foreign mission last summer, citing its promotion of Beijing’s propaganda efforts to academics across the world.

“The indicators suggest that the U.S.-China Strong Foundation could be a [Chinese Communist Party] front group, or so heavily influenced by the CCP as to be tantamount to a front group,” said Anders Corr, an intelligence analyst and publisher of the Journal of Political Risk.

The group also entered into a partnership with the Confucius Institute U.S. Center, an education outfit funded by the Chinse government. In recent years, the federal government has investigated organizations such as the Confucius Institute for attempting to recruit students to spy on China’s behalf. The institutes have also more broadly been accused of disseminating Chinese propaganda.

Revelations about Campbell’s work with the U.S.-China Strong Foundation come the same week that it emerged Biden’s youngest son, Hunter, continues to hold a 10 percent stake in an international private equity firm with ties to Beijing.