Residents of Shanghai, Hong Kong among donors to Jeb Bush's Super PAC

[seafan]

Open Secrets spills the beans:

The most generous donors who sent in their gifts from abroad included Gary Rieschel, now a Shanghai resident and founding managing partner of Qiming Venture Partners, which focuses on “early stage investments in China”; he gave $100,000 to Right to Rise USA. Matching Rieschel’s contribution was Hong Kong development mogul Ronnie Chan, chairman of the Hang Lung Group and Hang Lung Properties Limited. Chan and his wife Barbara each donated $2,700 to Bush’s campaign as well. Previously, Chan was a director and audit committee member of the now-defunct energy company Enron during the time it was engaged in a major accounting scandal.

According to the South China Morning Post, Chan is a U.S. citizen.

Another set of donations from Hong Kong, however — which adds up to just under half-a-million dollars — is more mysterious. In May 2015, Chen Shu Te, who describes himself as “retired,” made three separate donations of $150,000 and over — totaling $499,137 — to Right to Rise USA. OpenSecrets Blog hasn’t been able to link him to any entity.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) rules prohibit “foreign nationals” (which doesn’t include green card holders) from “contributing, donating or spending funds in connection with any federal, state, or local election in the United States, either directly or indirectly.” The FEC also states any “federal political committee” aware of such contributions must either refund them or deposit them and “take steps to determine its legality” — all within 10 days of the “treasurer’s receipt.” A refund must be issued if the committee cannot confirm “within 30 days of the treasurer’s receipt” that the donation was legal.

When contacted by the OpenSecrets Blog about about whether Chen Shu Te’s contributions have been vetted, the super PAC’s communications director, Paul Lindsay, said that Right to Rise USA doesn’t “respond to questions from DC advocacy organizations.” Told that the Center for Responsive Politics is not an advocacy organization, Lindsay insisted otherwise and would not answer our query.

Other donors living abroad also gave to Right to Rise USA. There’s Jean-Dominique Virchaux, a Paris-based managing director and regional leader for France and Spain at executive search firm Korn Ferry, who gave $5,000 to Right to Rise in June. The super PAC also received that amount from C. James Schaeffer IV, a former George H.W. Bush administration official who now serves as COO of Bahamas-based Old Fort Financial; and Kirk Sweeney — the CEO of Millennium Management’s Asia branch, based in Singapore. L. Brooks Entwistle, the Singapore-based CEO of Everstone Capital, gave the super PAC double that amount at $10,000.

OpenSecrets Blog found references indicating that nearly all the Right to Rise USA donors mentioned above have been educated in the U.S. and/or previously worked in the U.S. Chen Shu Te is the only one about whom virtually no information could be located — except that someone by the same name and with a Hong Kong address made two contributions of $1,000 each, in 1990 and 1992, to the Senate campaign of Leo McCarthy, a California Democrat. No contributions since then could be located on CRP’s database.

Only one corporate donation with a foreign address came in to the super PAC: $25,000 from SRI Capital Inc, for which a Canadian address is listed on Right to Rise USA’s filing.

LOOOOOVE that "transparency", Jeb.


We noticed in 2012 that Jeb Bush had a very busy few months in the Far East:

Xi meets Jeb Bush, calls for closer cooperation between China, US, January 17, 2012


Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Jeb Bush (L), former Governor of Florida, the United States, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 17, 2012. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)


Florida's former governor Jeb Bush meets Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong, May 22, 2012

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou tells Jeb Bush he wants the US to upgrade F-16 jets, May 24, 2012

Probably just using that 'Family Name' thing, to seal some private deals, including promises if/when he runs for president....


Meanwhile, today, he's doubling down on "anchor babies", this time claiming that it's more of "an Asian problem".

Jeb Bush continued Monday to dismiss criticism for using the term "anchor babies," saying that it is "ludicrous" that he is being accused of using a term that insults immigrants.

"Nothing about what I've said should be viewed as derogatory towards immigrants at all," the GOP presidential candidate said after meeting with local officials near the U.S.-Mexico border in McAllen, TX. "This is all how politics plays. And by the way, I think we need to take a step back and chill out a little bit as it relates to the political correctness that somehow you have to be scolded every time you say something."

Bush said that he used the term "anchor babies" specifically to refer to fraud -- sometimes called "birth tourism" -- in a "specific targeted kind of case" involving mothers who travel to the United States only to win citizenship for their unborn children.

"Frankly it's more Asian people," he added.

So utterly sick and tired of dealing with all things Bush.

[DonViejo]

1. The Bush's have long standing ties with the PRC...

A Bush is the owner of UPS China, President of the Chamber of Commerce, owner of the first horse track to be opened in Beijing. Bush $$$ comes from China

[seafan]

2. Inside Jeb Bush's Shady Business Dealings With China

Yes, the Bushes and China have a LONG history of "mutual cooperative benefit".


Inside Jeb Bush's Shady Business Dealings With China, January 13, 2015

One under-explored avenue of Bush's business dealings has been the China connection. Given that Bush may soon be vying to be commander-in-chief, it seems untoward that he would be close to the country that is our greatest economic rival, but that's exactly what the former Florida governor has done.

Hainan, China was the site of George W. Bush's first major foreign policy crisis. In 2001, a reconnaissance aircraft collided with a Chinese plane, and U.S. Navy personnel were stranded on Hainan Island. Following a series of diplomatic maneuvers, mutual recognition of the event, and an apology for the death of a Chinese fighter pilot, the crew was freed.

In 2011, Jeb Bush arrived in Hainan not as an official diplomat—it had been four years since he was a public official—but as an informal liaison between Florida corporations and booming Chinese business. He was greeted by the governor, Luo Baoming, and the Hainan government put up a proud press release about how Hainan and Florida were naturally going to engage in economic cooperation:

Luo Baoming said that Hainan Province and Florida shared many similarities; therefore the two parties had wide cooperation space with immense potential. For example, Hainan and Florida are able to cooperate with each other in cruise industry. There are cruise stop ports in Haikou and Sanya in Hainan Province. During the “12th Five-Year Plan”, a world cruise home port will be built in Sanya. Luo expected that the two parties ware able to set up smooth cooperation channel and John Ellis Bush could play a key role in promoting the mutual cooperation. Finally Luo Baoming invited John Ellis Bush to attend the 2011 Annual Conference of Boao Forum for Asia to become the third person (after his father George Bush and elder brother George Walker Bush) in his family to take part in this forum.

Jeb Bush hoped that Hainan Province and Florida would extend the cooperation in hotel management, cruise and yacht and establish long lasting contact and cooperation mechanism. He will be very happy to assist the new Governor in promoting the friendly relationship between Hainan Province and Florida.

In 2013, Bush's private equity business Britton Hill Holdings invested in BH Logistics, which last spring raised $26 million from a variety of investors including HNA group, which is based in Hainan. It also operates 500 jets as part of a subsidiary, Hainan Airlines.

"For the Chinese, the Bush name and the Bush connections to energy are a natural marriage,” China business scholar Derek Scissors told BloombergPolitics. “This is a classic example of the way sophisticated Chinese firms work. They don’t want to get involved directly in a U.S. startup that’s involved in shale, so they’ll take a minority stake to keep a lower profile. They’re looking for political protection, and the Bush name legitimizes the investment and makes him a perfect partner.”

Perhaps it isn't a coincidence that Bush endorsed long-shot Jon Huntsman, the former U.S. Ambassador to China, during his 2011 run for the presidency. Bush called Huntsman a “serious, experienced leader”during a time of “global upheaval and strife.” Huntsman has long been an advocate of increased economic and social ties with China, something he even touted on the campaign trail. If you look at Bush's endorsement less as a serious intervention on behalf of a long-shot candidate and more as a way to curry favor for his increasing portfolio of Chinese investments, it makes a lot more sense.

HNA Group has been rapidly expanding over the past few years, and has set its sights on a number of new markets, including energy, while Republicans in Congress have been pushing for expanded exports of U.S. oil and natural gas.

All of this helped Bush make a lot of money, but there are rising questions about what it could do for his political career.

“The Chinese don’t like political attention in the United States, because anything involving China can be tainted,” Scissors told BloombergPolitics. “(Bush) may be taking advantage of a political opportunity that’s going to cause him political problems down the road. It would be interesting to know if they have a story ready to explain what he’s doing.”

[font color=red]It appears Jeb Bush has not resigned from his private equity firm, despite resigning from various other positions. This means he could very well be running in a campaign where the issue of Chinese competition will loom large—but he will continue to use his political prominence to get rich off Chinese business. That's a circle he may find hard to square with voters.[/font]

Someone should ask Jeb Bush if he has resigned from his private equity firm, Britton Hill Holdings, which, as we see, is heavily invested in China.

We must end the reign of the parasitic Bush Family Dynasty.