Former Secretary of State and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton lambasted critics of Democratic California Rep. Judy Chu’s China connections as “racist,” but Clinton herself has a history of taking donations and working with figures linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Chu came under fire last month after the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) reported on her alleged connections to the CCP, including that she was appointed as honorary chairwoman of an alleged CCP front group. That prompted Republican Texas Rep. Lance Gooden to share the DCNF story on Twitter, accompanied by a comment questioning where her loyalty lies.
The attacks on Rep. Judy Chu are false, racist, and xenophobic. All people of conscience should stand together to say so. https://t.co/3rH8c83oMk
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 25, 2023
Clinton joined the chorus of Democrats calling Gooden, and others critical of Chu, racist, over the weekend. The former first lady tweeted that attacks on Chu are “false, racist, and xenophobic.”
Clinton herself has a history of working with individuals linked to the CCP in various capacities. Perhaps most notably, a major donor to the Clinton Foundation, Wang Wenliang, was a member of the CCP’s National People’s Congress before being ousted due to a vote-buying scandal, The Washington Post reported.
Wenliang’s companies donated $2 million to the Clinton Foundation in 2013, and then $120,000 to Clinton ally and former Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe in 2013 and 2014, The Washington Post reported. Hillary Clinton officially joined the Clinton Foundation in 2013 after serving as Secretary of State in the Obama administration.
Prior to that, an Indonesian national with substantial business interests in China, James Riady, had a visa waiver approved to return to the United States in 2009, while Clinton was Secretary of State. Riady had been banned from the United States for violating campaign finance laws through contributions to President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, The Washington Post reported. Around the time Riady had his visa waiver approved by the Clinton State Department, he said he had given a $20,000 donation to the Clinton Global Initiative.
Tony Podesta, the brother of longtime Clinton confidant and 2016 campaign manager John Podesta, has a history of lobbying on behalf of major Chinese corporations. On at least two occasions his lobbying firm accepted at least $500,000 to lobby on behalf of Huawei and ZTE Telecommunications, the DCNF previously reported.
While the complete donor history of the Clinton Foundation is unknown, the organization did release a list of donors in 2008 ahead of Clinton’s first failed presidential campaign, The New York Times reported. On it were several Chinese firms, including tech giant Alibaba, which was listed as having donated at least $100,000, and a firm called China Overseas Real Estate Development, which donated at least $250,000, although it’s unclear if the latter has any connection to the CCP. (RELATED: Dem Rep Denies Membership In Orgs With Alleged Chinese Intel Ties, But Photos And Documents Suggest Otherwise)
Clinton hasn’t been the only Democrat to criticize reporting on Chu and other CCP-affiliated officials as racist. During a House Foreign Relations Committee hearing Tuesday, several Democrats said that efforts to hold China accountable for threats to the U.S. must not lead to anti-Asian sentiment.