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A close ally of Vice President Kamala Harris met with multiple Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials during a September 2017 business trip to China.

Ron Busby, the longtime president of the U.S. Black Chambers, “traveled to Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi’an for a 10-day trip as part of a delegation of New York government officials and business leaders,” according to Fox News.

“The delegation will meet with government leaders and representatives of the business community in China to have discussions over the topics including Sino-US technological innovation, business development, friendship agreements, and other projects,” a press release highlighting the trip read.

The press release added that the trip was an opportunity “to build communication channels and networks for Chinese companies who are looking for development in the United States.”

During the trip, Busby reportedly told Chinese officials that the “[U.S. Black Chambers, Inc.] administered more than 100 chambers, and [that] he is willing to share and communicate the resources with Xi’an in various fields,” according to a post-trip report reviewed by Fox News.

The report further notes that he and other trip participants met with “Li Yuan, the Vice Mayor of Xi’an; Huang Xiaohua-the Vice Secretary-General of Xi’an Provincial People’s Government, Xing Xin-Director of Xi’an Investment Cooperation Committee, Cai Lanfang-Vice President of Xi’an People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and other representatives.”

The latter meeting could prompt trouble because the U.S. government has repeatedly warned about the Xi’an People’s Association for Friendship.

“In 2020, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released a press statement warning it is a ‘Beijing-based organization tasked with co-opting subnational governments’ that ‘has sought to directly and malignly influence state and local leaders to promote the PRC’s global agenda,’” Fox News notes.

The trip was reportedly “supported” by the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in New York and sponsored by the New York in China Center.

The Consulate General reportedly serves as a CCP mouthpiece and was recently implicated in an indictment against a former aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The New York in China Center meanwhile was founded by Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE) Advisory Board member John Wang in 2008.

Busby’s Facebook page is reportedly “littered” with photos from the trip, including a selfie of him flying to China.

“On the way to China. Spreading the voice of Black businesses around the globe,” the caption to the selfie reads.

“Another photo shows Busby and the rest of the delegation sitting around a table with the CCP hammer and sickle emblem on a sign behind them on the wall,” Fox News notes. “After the trip, Busby said in a Facebook post that the United States, Africa, and China ‘need each other for the new sustainability.’”

He’s evidently a big fan of China.

“Two weeks ago we were in China and we did a similar memorandum of understanding [MOU] with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce,” he reportedly said during the 2017 Essence Festival Durban Business Conference.

“[China understands] the importance of being on the continent obviously, but they also understand that there needs to be a relationship between the people on the continent, and they understand that African Americans have a natural relationship here, and so we [three] will work together to bring their resources that they have along with the ingenuity, creativity that we have in the United States, to bring that here. Collectively, all three continents can grow, and they’re very excited as well as we are,” he added.

Two years ago, the U.S. Black Chambers released a “BLACKprint” report that reportedly touted “black entrepreneurs” receiving access to “global business opportunities” and that said they’d “signed Memorandum of Understandings with business leaders in Durban, Morocco, and China.”

Busby is, as noted earlier, close to Harris and also President Joe Biden.

“Busby’s position as the president of the U.S. Black Chambers makes him an influential business leader not only in the Black community, but he has been able to leverage his position to participate in meetings with top U.S. government officials, including President Biden, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Vice President Harris, among others on behalf of his group,” according to Fox News.

He’s especially close with Vice President Harris.

This past July she “hosted an exclusive reception at her private residence” to honor black business leaders, according to a press release reviewed by Fox  News.

“The reception was in partnership with U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. and featured Busby, who said the reception was a ‘powerful acknowledgment of the remarkable progress Black business leaders have achieved in shaping our nation’s economic landscape,’” Fox News notes.

A few months prior, both Harris and Busby attended an economic recovery event in Detroit, where the VP referred to the U.S. Black Chambers boss as an “extraordinary leader” who’s exhibited “courageous leadership.”

Vivek Saxena
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