Hunter Biden arranged a meeting between his father and his business partners in Communist China during an official trip in 2013, while President Biden was serving as vice president, according to emails from the time uncovered by prosecutors. The disclosure of the meeting is just the latest example of the elder Mr. Biden interacting with his family members’ business associates despite denying for years that he had ever done so. 

The first son traveled with his father on Air Force Two in 2013 to China while the elder Mr. Biden was leading a three-day diplomatic mission to the region. According to the emails, the younger Mr. Biden planned for his father and his business partner, Jonathan Li, to meet immediately after the then-vice president’s meeting with President Xi. 

“I arrive around 12- head to embassy then great hall for arrival ceremony,” Mr. Biden fils wrote to Mr. Li in an email. “Staying at St. Regis- I will touch base when I land.”

“Hope I can see u this time!” Mr. Li wrote back.

“Yes – we will make it work- lets plan on you guys coming over to St. Regis around 7:30 tonight. I don’t know exactly when I’ll be back but it should be around then- and I’d like to introduce you to my Dad,” Mr. Biden continued. “Also I am here until 4PM tmrw- again not sure what I am going to attend with Dad but will have better idea by tonight.”

The emails between Messrs. Biden and Li were obtained by law enforcement as part of an investigation into a fraud scheme that Mr. Biden’s associates were accused of orchestrating a Native American tribe in South Dakota. Two Biden business partners, Devon Archer and Jason Galanis, have both been convicted of stealing tens of millions of dollars from the tribe. Galanis is currently in prison while Archer, who received a year and a day-long sentence, is currently out on bail during his so-far unsuccessful appeals.

The messages were then shared with the House Oversight Committee and reported by Just the News. 

Messrs. Biden and Li eventually got their meeting with the former’s father after a lengthy meeting with Mr. Xi. “Meetings are running late- which means dinner w/ X will be pushed back so I think it is more likely that I will be back to hotel around 8:30 now. I’ll keep you updated,” Mr. Biden wrote to Mr. Li and his father and the Chinese president were meeting. 

“No problem,” Mr. Li responded. “We are having dinner in a restaurant beside your hotel. You hotel is closed, so you need to have someone to meet us when you are back.”

Archer, who at the time was working with Mr. Biden on potential business ventures in China, later asked him in an email if Mr. Li had the chance to meet his father. “Did you end up meeting Jonathan?” Archer wrote. 

“Yes- and they got to meet Dad. All very good. Talk later,” Mr. Biden replied.

Mr. Li was at the time the chief executive of BHR, an investment firm in China that worked with Mr. Biden and Archer on mergers and acquisitions and foreign investment. The first son and his partners invested half a million dollars with the firm and helped Mr. Li work on potential investments in America. In return, Mr. Biden was granted a seat on the board of BHR, according to bank records obtained by the House Oversight Committee. 

Mr. Biden says Mr. Li’s meeting with his father was nothing more than shaking hands, and that the then-vice president did not join them for dinner after the meeting with the Chinese president. 

“When we returned from an event to the hotel, there was a rope line, and Jonathan Li was in the lobby of the hotel where I was going to meet him for coffee. In that line I introduced my dad to Jonathan Li and a friend of his, and they shook hands and I believe probably took a photograph,” Mr. Biden told House impeachment investigators during a deposition in February. “And then my father went up to his room, and I went to have coffee with Jonathan Li.”

In 2019, the younger Mr. Biden received $260,000 in the form of two bank wires from Mr. Li. The beneficiary address listed for those wires was the president’s Wilmington, Delaware home. 

The elder Mr. Biden has long said that he “knew nothing” about his son’s foreign business dealings, but evidence disclosed by the impeachment investigation seems to contradict that. The president also met with other Chinese associates at a hotel near the White House in 2017, while he was a private citizen, during a dinner and business presentation.