Trump admin releases China corruption report delayed by Biden, but with little new information

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a long-awaited report on the corruption and wealth of senior Chinese Communist Party officials, but included very little new information, limiting its usefulness. 

In 2022, Congress tasked the Director of National Intelligence and State Department to produce a report on the wealth and corrupt practices of senior Chinese Communist Party officials in the National Defense Authorization Act, but Biden administration officials failed to publicly release that report by the deadline established by lawmakers. 

The ODNI finally released that report last week, after years of delays from the Biden administration. Shortly after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard took the helm at the agency, a spokesperson promised that the new administration was working to produce the mandated report.

"ODNI is working to fulfill this requirement,” an ODNI spokesperson told Just the News earlier this month.

But, one expert told Just the News that the corruption report, though a good start, does not go far enough because of its reliance on already public information.

“Exposing corruption throughout the CCP is an asymmetric advantage for America. The DNI report is a good start, but there really isn’t anything new in it. The real leverage isn’t in publicizing what Xi Jinping has already done; it’s exposing CCP wealth in America that isn’t already public,” Michael Sobolik, a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute who specializes in U.S.-China relations told Just the News. 

“That’s a lever the Trump administration should consider pulling, as it would counter the party’s propaganda that they have the best interests of the Chinese people at heart. DNI needs to protect sources and methods, so they'd have to be careful about this approach. If done well, it's an enormous source of leverage,” he continued. 

Indeed, the ODNI report cites several academic studies and public reporting to show that senior CCP officials routinely engage in corruption, like taking bribes, and store vast amounts of personal wealth abroad. However, very little of the information in the public report appears to have previously been secret. 

You can read the report below:

Chinese sensitive to exposing wealth of connected wealthy

In the past, efforts to expose the finances of senior CCP officials have been met with quick censorship and stern denials by the Chinese regime. The reactions suggest that a more complete report could provide significant leverage to the United States in negotiations with the Chinese. 

In 2012, Bloomberg News angered Chinese officials by publishing stories detailing the massive fortunes acquired by families with historical connections, commonly called "The Princelings." Bloomberg News reported in 2012 on the fortunes of Xi Jinping’s close family members on the eve of his accession to the Chinese presidency, and the Chinese Communist Party blocked the website for domestic audiences. 

The report exposed billions of dollars in assets held by his close family members, including his older sister, Qi Qiaoqiao, her husband, Deng Jiagui, and their daughter. After the government complained loudly and threatened to banish Bloomberg from the lucrative financial data market, Peter Grauer, Bloomberg's CEO at the time, publicly backtracked on future coverage of CCP-connected wealth, reported The New York Times.

“This is an existential threat to the Chinese regime, because you have leaders with tens of millions—billions, in some cases—of funds outside of China. And if the Chinese people knew the extent of this, there probably would be a revolution,” Gordon Chang, a lawyer and China commentator who lived and worked in Shanghai and Hong Kong for decades, previously told the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show. 

Later the same year, the Chinese government censored the New York Times after a similar report on the billions in assets of the family of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, despite his family’s humble origins. The Times reported that the family’s considerable wealth ballooned in the years after Wen Jiabao was elevated to the country’s ruling caste when he first became the vice premier in 1998.