From Yahoo News, Nov. 11:
When Patrick Ho was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Nov. 18, 2017, the former Hong Kong government official made one phone call: to James B. Biden, the younger brother of the former U.S. vice president, an acquaintance whose number he had on hand.The well-connected Hong Konger asked Biden for a lawyer.Ho was going to need a good one. The U.S. Department of Justice was planning to indict him for using his connections at the United Nations to bribe a U.N. General Assembly president along with several African government officials.The arrest attracted media attention because of Ho’s link to a powerful Chinese energy conglomerate, CEFC China Energy. Ho ran the energy company’s think tank, China Energy Fund Committee, an NGO affiliated with the U.N. that had offices in New York, Virginia and Hong Kong.The former Hong Kong official was indicted on a number of foreign bribery and money-laundering charges, but the investigation surrounding Ho, his nonprofit and its parent company, and the United Nations wasn’t about just corruption. A flurry of recent court filings reveal that the government collected at least some of Ho’s communications under a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a secret order used to monitor suspected foreign agents.And records related to the case — including documents submitted by Ho’s own attorney — now connect Ho’s alleged payments to promotion of a major Beijing foreign policy push called the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature venture advancing investment and infrastructure projects around the world. Belt and Road isn’t about only inking business deals; it offers a sweeping vision of a China-centric political and economic global order, one in which countries depend on China, not the West, for prosperity.China’s influence operations have been getting high-level attention in the Trump administration, particularly as it attempts to fend off allegations of collusion with Russia. In September, speaking at the United Nations, President Trump himself accused China of meddling in U.S. affairs, and in a high-profile speech on China the following month, Vice President Mike Pence asserted that the United States believes Beijing is seeking to “interfere in the domestic policies of this country” as part a wide-scale influence operation.Ho’s case may illustrate another, more serious aspect of Beijing’s operations abroad: an attempt to influence the most prominent symbol of the global rules-based order, the United Nations. And the Ho case is not an isolated event. Since 2015, U.S. officials have successfully prosecuted two other related cases of China-linked nonprofits being used to funnel money to U.N officials.Yet the Ho case also may illustrate a key dilemma for the U.S. government as it attempts to expose foreign agents operating in the United States: While the Trump administration may be eager to prove Beijing is conducting a global influence campaign, it’s often easier to convict someone of financial crimes.The Department of Justice and Ho’s lawyers declined to comment on any aspect of his case.Regardless of the prosecution’s arguments in court, Western intelligence officials says Ho’s case fits a broader pattern. Beijing, they argue, is deploying private companies, billionaires, spy agencies, and even charities to achieve its political agenda abroad.“The Chinese don’t think of it as bribery and corruption,” said one former senior U.S. intelligence official. “They think about it as investment, whether it is at the U.N. or elsewhere.”* * *Patrick Ho was born and raised in Hong Kong, a former British colony, but he has long operated inside Beijing’s political orbit. He first emerged on the scene in the 1990s as a delegate to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Beijing, an important arm of the United Front, one of the Communist Party’s political influence agencies. He went on to serve on Beijing’s handpicked task force charged with overseeing Hong Kong’s handover in 1997 to mainland Chinese sovereignty. His service was rewarded when he was appointed as Hong Kong’s minister of home affairs, a position he held from 2002 to 2007.
In 2011, Ho assumed leadership of the Hong Kong-based nonprofit China Energy Fund Committee, founded and funded by the ostensibly private CEFC China Energy, and obtained U.N. accreditation almost immediately, a status granting outside nonprofits access to U.N. grounds, events and personnel. China is a leading member of the committee that grants accreditation and tends to stonewall applications from human rights NGOs or other organizations that might place political pressure on China. The China Energy Fund Committee faced no such difficulty.The U.N. status gave Ho’s Hong Kong organization, which also has offices in New York City and Arlington, Va., immediate credibility. The committee’s website and print publications were emblazoned with its U.N.-affiliated status, and Ho often touted the U.N. association. China Energy Fund’s website (now down) lists dozens of high-profile individuals as “expert advisors.” Yet when contacted by Yahoo, several of these individuals said that they had never heard of the organization and had never consented to associate with it in any capacity.The nonprofit hosted events as well, such as colloquia about U.S.-China policy and talks about China’s development model. Ho gave talks promoting the Belt and Road Initiative and held meetings in his capacity as the organization’s director, cultivating relationships within the U.N. But soon Ho allegedly began using his nonprofit to engage in other activities.In 2014, three years after the China Energy Fund Committee received U.N. special status, Ho began to offer bribes to U.N. officials, U.S. prosecutors allege. Some of those bribes were aimed at securing business advantages and opportunities for the NGO’s parent company, CEFC China Energy, the private Chinese company with ties to the Chinese government and military, according to court documents....
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