First up on Fox: A Biden appointee who has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaigns and is married to a top former aide to then-Senator Biden has played a key role in recruiting Chinese businesses to Delaware.
Michael Marquardt, whom Biden appointed to the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of American Heritage Abroad in 2022, has advised international companies over the past two decades and in recent years helped the Delaware Prosperity Partnership (DPP) recruit Chinese businesses to invest in Delaware.
Marquardt, who has been serving as a “global advisor” to the DPP since 2017, has used his social media accounts to highlight his work in introducing Chinese business leaders and Chinese companies to Delaware.
“Today we welcomed over 50 Chinese business executives to The First State, a tour planned and sponsored by the Bank of China,” Marquardt wrote in an article. 2015 Facebook post. “After a program highlighting the benefits and advantages of Delaware as the ‘Gateway to America,’ we visited Insight Corporation – one of the fastest growing companies in the country. Our visitors were very impressed. Delaware is the only state they visit other than New York City and Washington DC (for sightseeing).”
President Biden, Michael Marquardt and former President Bill Clinton attend fundraising event in New York City. (Michael Marquardt x account)
The day before, Marquardt posted on her Facebook profile from New York City about then-Delaware Governor Jack Markell, a Biden ally, being presented with the “International Leadership Award from the China General Chamber of Commerce at the Bank of China’s new U.S. headquarters building at 7 Bryant Park in Manhattan.”
“The building actually isn’t finished yet and it was amazing to see it before it officially opens.” Marquardt added“The ceremony concluded a day of business matching sessions between more than 100 Chinese companies and more than 100 U.S. companies, including 21 from Delaware.”
That same year, Marquardt posted an article on Facebook praising Delaware’s funding to “expand a summer abroad program in China for high school students studying Mandarin.” She also posted the hashtag “#ForwardThinkingDelaware” on Twitter.
“And today we welcomed 2 buses loaded with Chinese business executives to @DelawareGlobal to learn more about the First State,” Marquardt Posted on X A photo in 2015 of a bus possibly carrying Chinese business executives heading to Delaware.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping at the closing session of the National People’s Congress held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
In 2016, the final year of the Obama-Biden administration, Marquardt posted on your facebook About attending a “very special event” held in New York City to “celebrate the growing trade relationship between China and the United States.”
He added, “Once again, Global Delaware is front and center!”
According to photos posted by Marquardt, he was at the China-US Economic and Trade Cooperation Conference. Keynotes included From Hu Chunhua, who was then a member of the powerful Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Party Secretary of Guangdong Province.
According to a 2018 report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Chunhua is currently the vice chairman of the 14th CPPCC National Committee, a “central part” of China’s united front system that works to co-opt and neutralise sources of potential opposition to the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) policies and authority.
Later that same year, Marquardt traveled to Washington, D.C., for the closing ceremony of the China-US Year of Tourism 2016, according to an Xpost by Andrea Tinianov, who launched Global Delaware, an initiative of the Delaware Department of State designed to “help Delaware companies develop markets overseas, attract foreign companies to set up operations in Delaware, and strengthen Delaware’s role as a leader in corporate governance.”
According to his LinkedIn profile, he also served as the chief innovation officer and executive vice president of Global Kompass Strategies Inc., a “globally respected consulting firm” founded by Marquardt. Marquardt was invited by the China General Chamber of Commerce (CGCC), a New York City-based group that has been praised by top CCP leaders in Beijing, to attend a lunch for Vice Premier Wang Yang, one of the most powerful CCP leaders in China, according to a report. 2016 Facebook post.
Several top Democrats attended the event, including former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and President Obama’s ambassador to China, Max Baucus.
one of 2018 Facebook postMarquardt posted photos of a “follow-up meeting with the China Entrepreneur Club in Beijing” and described his meeting as “productive.”
A 2014 BBC profile excerpt The CEC has been described as “China’s richest club,” consisting of “46 of China’s top business leaders” and including “politicians, academics and other advisers,” including several billionaires. According to last year’s annual report, the group now has more than 60 members.
Its honorary club presidents are Jack Ma, founder of the CCP-affiliated Alibaba, which allegedly helped create surveillance technology against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, and Liu Chuanzhi, who has held several top positions The CCP includes deputies to the 16th and 17th National Congresses and deputies to the 9th, 10th and 11th National People’s Congresses, the annual report said.
In a 2019 article posted on social media, Marquardt said he traveled to Washington, D.C., and “greatly enjoyed reuniting with old friends” from the CGCC and the Bank of China at the SelectUSA summit representing the DPP. SelectUSA is a “federal government program under the U.S. Department of Commerce tasked with promoting and facilitating business investment in the United States.”
China has Leading roles played It is the largest contributor to Delaware’s economy and will be the recipient of $498 million in exported goods in 2023, according to the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.
In 2022, C.G.C.C. publish a post About a trip by their “member companies” to Wilmington, Delaware, “to learn about Delaware’s economy through site visits and interactions with local government officials,” which also included a “presentation” by DPP’s Marquardt and the group’s president and CEO, Kurt Foreman.
“Following a tour of DPP headquarters, members enjoyed a special welcome dinner hosted by Governor John Carney at the historic Hotel du Pont in downtown Wilmington,” the post added.
2023 LinkedIn post profile Marquardt It includes several quotes about his passion for working with foreign countries looking to invest in the United States, including his statement, “I’m always amazed when a person from another country knows so little about Delaware.”
He added that Delaware is “incredibly welcoming, yet it’s moving at the pace that innovative companies need” and that he “enjoys telling them why so many businesses choose to come here.”
President Biden and Hunter Biden during the Easter Egg Roll at the White House on April 1, 2024. (Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A Fox News Digital review found that Marquardt’s ties to Biden date back more than two decades to when his wife, Claire DeMatteis, served as senior counsel to then-Senator Biden, a position she held from 1994 to 2004.
Last summer, Marquardt, who was originally from West Berlin, Germany, and immigrated to the United States in the early 1990s, posted a video of their wedding ceremony, which marked their 20th wedding anniversary and featured Biden giving a toast in 2003 in place of DeMatteis’ father, who died when she was 9.
During the toast, Biden called Marquardt a “good man” and joked that he had only questioned his relationship with Biden’s brother-in-law Jack Owens, who is married to his sister Valerie Biden Owens. The reference stems from Marquardt serving as co-founder and CEO of MediGuide, a telemedicine company that Owens invested in and later bought and managed in the early 2000s, According to an archived resume On the MediGuide website.
Fox News Digital previously reported Owens requested help from his nephew Hunter Biden in obtaining a Chinese business license.
Marquardt, who served on the Biden for President National Finance Committee between 2019 and 2020, and his wife have also been prolific donors to Biden PACs and campaigns, from the Senate to the presidential level. Between 2003 and 2024, the Delaware couple Donated over $50,000 They are supporting Biden’s campaign, according to FEC records.
Marquardt has posted several photos with Biden on her social media accounts and LinkedIn profile over the past few years and has promoted her relationship with him on her business website. Her background photo on X, Facebook and LinkedIn This includes him and his wife. Earlier this year he accompanied President Biden and former Presidents Obama and Clinton to a celebrity-packed fundraiser in New York City. He has also posted photos with his wife at the White House during the Biden administration, including a Christmas party and a 4th of July celebration.
“I am a business consultant who is welcomed into boardrooms around the world,” Marquardt’s website reads next to a photo of him and Biden shortly after he announced his run for president in 2019. “As a trusted strategist who quickly gains an understanding of business culture and helps drive change from within, I specialize in advising U.S. companies seeking to expand in Europe or Asia and companies seeking to enter the U.S. market.”
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President Biden speaks during a campaign event in Philadelphia on April 18, 2024. (Hanna Beyer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Fox News Digital reached out to Marquardt and the White House for comment but did not receive a response.
