Clinton Foundation’s China Donor Has History of Influencing US Policy on China

The head of the Chinese business that pledged $2 million to the Clinton Foundation’s endowment in 2013 has a history of trying to influence U.S. policy on China.

The donation came from Rilin Enterprises, found a CBS News investigation. The head of the company is Wang Wenliang, who according to CBS was asked to join the Chinese regime’s National People’s Congress as a delegate in 2013.

Rilin Enterprises owns a strategic port on the North Korean border and was among the contractors that built the Chinese Embassy in Washington. CBS notes it is also close to one of the Chinese regime’s main spy agencies, the Ministry of State Security.

The Clinton Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The political influence of the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation is well known, and CBS News notes that many people donate to the foundation for that reason.

Evidence suggests that Wang may be among the foundation’s donors looking to tap its influence. CBS News cites public records showing Wang’s Rilin Enterprises spent $1.4 million since 2012 lobbying Congress and the State Department when Clinton was still in office.

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Wang’s interest in programs meant to sway U.S. policies on China, however, go far beyond his donations. He has funded or helped establish numerous organizations in the United States—from think tanks to scholarly institutes—designed to influence U.S.–China relations, U.S. foreign policy, and U.S. security policy.

According to the University of South Carolina, which gave Wang an honorary degree, he “is a major benefactor engaged in U.S.–China relations, Southeast Asia relations, and relations on the Korean Peninsula.” 

Among the scholarly and exchange programs Wang has helped establish are the New York University’s Center on U.S.–China Relations, the Hodges Scholars Program at the University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business, and programs at the National University of Singapore.

Wang’s Rilin Enterprises also provided the launching grant in September 2014 to establish the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) Zbigniew Brzezinski Institute on Geostrategy. CSIS notes the institute would become “a permanent home for a strong, effective American foreign policy.”

Growing Controversy

Hillary Clinton is currently under fire from several directions. On March 3, New York Times reported that rather than use a secure email account from the State Department, Clinton had used a private email account during her four years as secretary of state.

When Clinton was asked to disclose the emails, she deleted close to 32,000 emails, which she claims were private.

The chairman of the House Committee on Benghazi, Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), sent a subpoena to Clinton on March 11 asking for her private emails on Libya and the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. Embassy. According to Politico, Clinton’s lawyers responded immediate and requested a two-week extension to March 27.

The controversy around Clinton’s emails came on the heels of news that the Clinton Foundation accepted millions of dollars from seven foreign governments while Clinton served as secretary of state.

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The Washington Post reported that foreign countries including the Algerian government were able to donate to the Clinton Foundation during Clinton’s term through a 2008 agreement, which allowed governments that had previously donated to make contributions at similar levels.

The Clinton Foundation, which invests millions each year in work to fight AIDS and empower women, raised at least $42 million from foreign governments, according to CBS News, and raised at least $170 million from foreign entities and individuals.

New York Times noted Clinton’s hypocrisy in her claim to support women’s rights, and pointed out on March 8 that the Clinton Foundation has accepted tens of millions of dollars in donations from six Middle Eastern countries, “all of which the State Department has faulted over their records on sex discrimination and other human-rights issues.”

The Triad Connection

Hillary Clinton has a long history of accepting donations from unsavory Chinese organizations.

While she is building her expected presidential campaign around women’s rights, going back to her campaign in 2007 and 2008, Clinton had “enlisted the aid of Chinese neighborhood associations,” LA Times reported at the time, including at least one with a history of illegal gambling, abuse of immigrants, and human trafficking.

While the LA Times did not name the organizations, which it noted were especially those representing immigrants from Fujian Province, at least one of Clinton’s donors at the time was the Fukien American Association, according to records obtained by Epoch Times.

The Fukien American Association is one of the Chinese “Tongs” and according to the book, “Chinatown Gangs: Extortion, Enterprise, and Ethnicity,” by Ko-lin Chin, the association is the parent organization of the Fuk Ching gang, which was one of the largest known human trafficking organizations in New York City.

The Fuk Ching ran the infamous Golden Venture, a 147-foot cargo ship that ran aground in Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York, in 1993 with 286 illegal immigrants from China on-board.

The Fuk Ching gang had also worked with the notorious Cheng Chui “Sister” Ping, who died in U.S. federal prison in April 2014, after her arrest for running a large-scale human trafficking operation between Hong Kong and New York City from 1984 to 2000.

When the LA Times investigated 150 of the Chinese donors for Clinton in 2007, it reported that “many said they gave to Clinton because they were instructed to do so by local association leaders. Some said they wanted help on immigration concerns. And several spoke of the pride they felt by being associated with a powerful figure such as Clinton.”