(1)New Details Revealed of RNC Fundraiser’s Lobbying for China

January 16, 2021

Source

A senior Chinese government official enlisted the help of a top fundraising official at the Republican National Committee to lobby the Trump administration in 2017 to return a Chinese businessman living in the U.S. who has long been sought by Beijing, according to a court document filed in Hawaii last week.

Sun Lijun, China’s then-vice minister of public security, met in a hotel suite in Shenzhen in May 2017 with Elliott Broidy, a venture capitalist and, at the time, national deputy finance chairman of the RNC, according to the document. At Mr. Sun’s request, Mr. Broidy agreed to seek to use his influence with the Trump administration to advocate for the removal of Guo Wengui, a Chinese businessman living in New York, the document said.

Details of the meeting and other efforts Mr. Broidy made on behalf of the Chinese to remove Mr. Guo show the lengths to which China has gone to pursue a priority that had stalled through official diplomatic channels.

Beijing considers Mr. Guo a fugitive from bribery and other allegations in China but has been unsuccessful in persuading the U.S. to hand him over. Since moving to an apartment in a Manhattan hotel after fleeing China in 2014, he has publicized salacious and unproven allegations against senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. He has denied the Chinese allegations and described the attempts at his removal as a corrupt exercise by Communist Party officials.

An account of China’s and Mr. Broidy’s alliance was contained in a federal criminal charging document filed against one of Mr. Broidy’s business partners, Nickie Lum Davis. She is charged with violating a law that requires lobbyists for foreign governments or nationals to register that work with the Justice Department. A lawyer for Ms. Davis didn’t return requests for comment.