A new book raises questions about California Gov. Gavin Newsom's ties to China. (Getty)
The book describes a Newsom trip to China, where he was hosted in a Shanghai "clubhouse" by Vincent Lo, a Chinese businessman with deep ties to the CCP.
"It was during this meeting that Newsom and Lo hatched a long-term plan to turn San Francisco into the premiere gateway through which Chinese companies could invest and expand their businesses in the United States," the book says. "Upon his return from China, starry-eyed Gavin told his staff that he was going to set aside a couple of million dollars to set up a public-private partnership called ChinaSF that would open the floodgates to Chinese money and business like never before. It turns out the young mayor wasn’t just blowing smoke: three years later, Newsom and Lo joined forces in Shanghai to co‑launch ChinaSF."
The book says that ChinaSF impacted the Bay Area arguably "more than any other" program that Newsom created as mayor and that the initiative hauled in almost $5.5 billion of economic impact to San Francisco from 2008 to 2018 while recruiting 108 Chinese companies into the city.
The book alleges that during this time period, ChinaSF "helped several corrupt Chinese corporations come to America."
One of the several companies discussed in the book was Suntech, a Chinese solar company developed by the CCP that was personally recruited by Newsom into the United States, and he publicly praised the company’s CEO, Dr. Zhengrong Shi, multiple times, and made him an advisory board member for ChinaSF.
In addition to green energy companies who streamed through ChinaSF, real estate companies were also involved, and the book alleges that Newsom received over $23,000 in anonymous contributions from Chinese real estate company Z&L, whose billionaire owner was criminally sentenced for bribing a San Francisco government official.
Chapter 3, titled "Feeding the Dragon," goes into detail about a variety of potential red flags on Newsom’s ties with China, including ChinaSF being used as a "tool to build San Francisco into a global hub for biotechnology and pharmaceutical science."
"Dozens of Chinese biotech companies were drawn to the Bay Area with huge tax breaks and other incentives, but it appears that there was very little vetting," the book states. "One of ChinaSF’s most concerning recruits is the biotech company JOINN Laboratories, which has close ties to China’s military."
China's national flag flutters on Pingtan island. (Adek Berry/Getty Images)
The chapter closes with a summary of why ChinaSF’s influence in the state deserves more scrutiny.
"Close analysis of available data reveals that most descriptions of ChinaSF by government and media have been vacuous and misleading,": the book says. "Essentially, ChinaSF is the branded name of a complex bureaucratic mirage used as cover to legitimize the massive transfer of Bay Area technology, property, and wealth to China while streamlining the establishment of Chinese business in the United States. It’s the secret elixir Newsom concocted to help transform San Francisco into the primary entry point and hub of China’s BRI in the United States."
"On the surface, the flurry of MOUs, press conferences, ribbon cuttings, and so forth – propped up by reassuring proclamations from chambers of commerce and government officials like Newsom – cohere into what may look like an innovative job-generating public-private partnership. But the deeper you probe into who’s funding ChinaSF, who’s failing to vet all the Chinese companies coming in, and who’s making money off the deals – you discover there’s no reasonable public accountability structure in place, not enough records for the public to review, and no clear explanations for why the San Francisco mayor’s office has a right to engage in risky subnational business schemes in some cases with People’s Republic of China criminals and shady Chinese firms who have exploited and damaged the US economy and fleeced American citizens with their fraudulent schemes."
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Gov. Gavin Newsom (Getty Images)
"San Francisco is proud of its long-standing relationship with China and its sister city, Shanghai," Newsom said in 2008. "ChinaSF builds on this history of shared cultural and economic ties, and strengthens future economic prosperity through enhanced relationships between San Franciscan and Chinese businesses."
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/newsoms-ties-to-ccp-under-microscope-in-new-book-exposing-alleged-corruption-fleeced-american-citizens