Vice President Kamala Harris is under fire for accepting campaign contributions — originally sent to President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign before he backed out — from a Chinese auto executive with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Officials with Driving Force Action PAC wrote to Harris on October 11:
We are deeply concerned about the reported $50,000 in political contributions your campaign received from Stella Ke Li, a Chinese national and senior executive at BYD, a Chinese electric vehicle company with close ties to the CCP and a company identified as a national security threat on par with Huawei.
BYD has been described as a company that benefits from substantial support from the Chinese government through direct subsidies and military-civil fusion initiatives. As detailed in various reports, BYD collaborates with military affiliates on significant projects, including data aggregation from vehicles and technology sharing with state-owned enterprises. Furthermore, Ms. Ke Li, who made these contributions, appears to be married to Wang Chuanfu, BYD’s founder and a prominent CCP member. [Emphasis added]
The acceptance of political contributions from an executive of a company with such ties to the CCP raises serious ethical and national security concerns, especially in light of your campaign’s previous stance on reducing reliance on foreign adversaries for critical industries like electric vehicles. While you have recently spoken in support of American manufacturing and expressed concern about China’s dominance in the electric vehicle market, accepting contributions from BYD appears inconsistent with these statements. [Emphasis added]
“In light of these concerns, Driving Force Action demands that your campaign return the $50,000 contribution made by Ms. Li and publicly disassociate from any financial ties to BYD,” the letter continues. “We believe this action is necessary to demonstrate your commitment to protecting American jobs, defending national security, and maintaining transparency in your campaign.” [Emphasis added]
Driving Force Action is primarily funded by the Specialty Equipment Market Association, opposing Electric Vehicle (EV) mandates like those implemented by the Biden-Harris administration.
The campaign contributions were first reported by the Washington Free Beacon’s Thomas Catenacci, who noted, “BYD Americas was selected in late 2022 to receive $395,000 under the administration’s Clean School Bus program, which was spearheaded by Harris and EPA administrator Michael Regan, EPA documents show,” Catenacci wrote. “That funding was disbursed in May 2023, six months before Li’s donations to the Biden-Harris campaign, according to the EPA.”
The Free Beacon reported:
BYD Americas’s president, Ke Li, then donated $25,000 to the Biden Victory Fund (now the Harris Victory Fund), $18,400 to the Democratic National Committee, but earmarked for the Biden Victory Fund, and a maximum individual contribution of $6,600 to the Biden campaign (now the Harris campaign), according to FEC filings reviewed by the Free Beacon. Li made each contribution on the same day: Nov. 14, 2023. President Joe Biden’s $96 million campaign war chest was transferred to Harris’s campaign in July after Biden withdrew from the presidential race. [Emphasis added]
In BYD Company’s most recent annual report, Li is identified as a Chinese national. Other company documents indicate she is a Chinese national with a “right of abode” in the United States. While federal law prohibits foreign nationals from making campaign donations, there is an exception for individuals with a green card. [Emphasis added]
Driving Force Action PAC is now running an ad across the critical swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Ohio — demanding Harris return the campaign contributions.
In August, Harris’s campaign claimed she “does not support an electric vehicle mandate.” That claim came after years of Harris backing such EV mandates.
Breitbart News detailed Harris’s Green New Deal proposal from 2020 when she sought to abolish sales of gas-powered cars by 2035 and ensure that Americans can only purchase EVs when looking for a new car.
“[W]e will ensure that 50 percent of all new passenger vehicles sold are zero-emission by 2030, and 100 percent are zero-emission by 2035,” Harris’s agenda read at the time. Similarly, Harris said she wanted to require “that all new buses be zero-emission by 2030.”
As vice president, Harris has backed Biden’s EV mandate, which will require that a majority of new cars produced and sold in the United States market are EVs or hybrids by 2032.
Both EV mandates run the risk of wiping out millions of American auto jobs. EVs, as experts note, require far less manpower to produce than traditional gas-powered cars.
Former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), have said they will eliminate Biden and Harris’s EV mandate.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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