Report: Hunter Biden invested in Chinese company linked to human-rights abuses

Former Vice President Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's campaign promise to crack down on American businesses with financial ties to humanitarian abuses in China has hit a snag, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

It's because his son, Hunter Biden, already at the center of the Ukraine scandal, holds a stake in a Chinese surveillance company that is under U.S. sanctions for human rights violations.

Hunter Biden owns part of Bohai Harvest RST Shanghai Equity, which initially invested in Megvii, a Chinese tech company under U.S. sanctions that specializes in facial recognition software.

In it application process for listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange, Bohai declared it owned nearly 2% of Megvii through two holding companies.

The Free Beacon noted ethical issues have been raised about Hunter Biden’s lucrative positions with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma while Joe Biden was overseeing Ukraine policy as vice president.

Hunter Biden also has been criticized for partnering with the state-run Bank of China to launch a Chinese investment firm.

"But in this instance, Hunter Biden's business deals are not just representative of nepotism or a conflict of interest—Joe Biden has promised to go after companies like the one his son is invested in," the Free Beacon noted.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Commerce listed Megvii among the sanctioned corporations that were "implicated in human-rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China's campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups."

Joe Biden has promised to "prohibit U.S. companies from abetting repression and supporting the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state."

Hunter Biden has no legal obligation to sell, but human rights activists believe foreign investors in effect are aiding Chinese persecution of the minority Uyghur population.

World Uyghur Congress project coordinator Ryan Barry told the Free Beacon that U.S. investors "absolutely" are ethically bound to divest from companies connected to China's persecution of minorities.

The Commerce Department's designation said Megvii was "enabling activities contrary to the foreign policy interests of the United States."