Democrats have a perfect confluence of interests bearing stark national security concerns. Chinese money is melding with progressive electric vehicle affinities as leading blue figures accept political donations bound to bolster the already substantial foothold China has in America.
BYD Americas is a US-based subsidiary of a Chinese multinational corporation that has direct ties to the Beijing regime, a requirement for all major companies in China. “Stella Li, a top executive for BYD Americas, and the company itself have given tens of thousands of dollars in campaign cash to Democratic candidates and organizations in California and beyond over the past decade,” The Daily Caller reported on July 20.
The amounts are not insubstantial. BYD and Li donated more than $40,000 to the Democratic National Committee from 2020-23, the news site states. “The company and Li have also poured more than $30,000 into organizations boosting President Joe Biden’s [now defunct] 2024 reelection effort to date.”
“Though she never held elective office, [Rose Pak] was famous for making and unmaking mayors,” establishment media outlet Politico reported in 2018. “According to four former intelligence officials, there were widespread concerns that Pak had been co-opted by Chinese intelligence,” the news site revealed.
When Newsom won a runoff election to become San Francisco mayor in 2003, he specifically thanked the city’s Chinese-American voting bloc for giving him the victory. “I could not have done it without you,” Newsom gushed.
Democrats are not the only big-name California politicians who have been tied to BYD. Former GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy sparked controversy five years ago with his stout support for the company.
In 2019, McCarthy blocked legislation that would have limited Chinese corporations from conducting contracts with US transit systems. BYD operated a plant in McCarthy’s congressional district. CEO Li was a donor to McCarthy’s campaigns, and McCarthy spoke at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening of a BYD plant in Lancaster, California, in 2017.
“Kevin McCarthy has been championing a Chinese-owned company that is utilizing our tax dollars to gain a foothold in the American automotive industry,” Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, told a prominent Washington newspaper at the time. “This is a company that is clearly championed by the Chinese government, that has ambitions to dominate the global auto market, and so giving a foothold to it in the American transit market . . . seems to be a really, really risky proposition.”
In February, the Biden administration ordered an investigation into the dangers inherent with electric “smart cars” that can store information on the Americans who purchase them. Think TikTok on four wheels.
“These vehicles are connected to the internet. They collect huge amounts of sensitive data on the drivers – personal information, biometric information, where the car goes,’’ Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo stated. “So it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to figure out how a foreign adversary like China, with access to this sort of information at scale, could pose a serious risk to our national security and the privacy of US citizens.’’
“I’m not going to let that happen on my watch,” Biden said of the looming threat.
Was he was aware that the DNC and his own (now-abandoned) re-election campaign machinery had been showered with cash from the leading Chinese EV company operating in America as he spouted these words?