A powerful ally of Vice President Kamala Harris, whom she has praised as an “extraordinary leader” who exhibits “courageous leadership,” met with multiple Chinese Communist Party officials during a business trip to China, where he vowed to “[spread] the voice of Black businesses,” Fox News Digital has learned.
Ron Busby, who has visited the Biden-Harris White House dozens of times and is longtime president of US Black Chambers, a business group, met with several CCP officials during a previously unreported trip to China, a Fox News Digital review found.
Busby 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, including then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s chief diversity officer Rose Rodriguez, who were dubbed the “New Majority Alliance.”
The delegation’s trip in September 2017 was supported by the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in New York, a Chinese government entity that serves as a mouthpiece for the CCP and was recently implicated in an unsealed indictment against a former top aide to New York’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. The New York in China Center, which has offices in New York and Shanghai, was the official sponsor of the trip.
John Wang, who was appointed in August by New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams and serves on the board of directors for the Empire State Development Board after being nominated in 2022 by Hochul, established the New York in China Center in 2008 to “handle [the Asian American Business Development’s] business in China, New York in China Center facilitates business, investment, technology and cultural exchanges between New York and China,” the group’s website says.
Busby’s Facebook profile is littered with photos from the trip, which included a “selfie” of him flying to China with the caption, “On the way to China. Spreading the voice of Black businesses around the globe.”
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.
After the trip, Busby said in a Facebook post that the United States, Africa and China “need each other for the new sustainability.”
“Two weeks ago, we were in China and we did a similar memorandum of understanding [MOU] with Chinese Chamber of Commerce,” Busby 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.”
A 2022 “BLACKprint” report released by Busby’s US Black Chambers touted “Black entrepreneurs” getting access to “global business opportunities” and said they have “signed Memorandum of Understandings with business leaders in Durban, Morocco, and China.”
Archived pages on the New York in China Center’s website show dozens of photos from the trip, including three separate reports highlighting the delegation’s meetings with CCP officials.
Busby told Chinese officials that “[US Black Chambers Inc.] administered more than 100 chambers, and he is willing to share and communicate the resources with Xi’an in various fields,” according to the Xi’an report reviewed by Fox News Digital.
Busby’s position as the president of the US 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 US government officials, including President Biden, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Harris and others on behalf of his group.
Harris “hosted an exclusive reception at her private residence” in July this year to honor black business leaders, according to a press release.
The reception was in partnership with US 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.”
Months earlier, Harris and Busby were in Detroit, Michigan, for an economic recovery event, where Harris called Busby an “extraordinary leader” who has exhibited “courageous leadership.” Harris also called Busby her “Oakland brother” during another event in 2021.
“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 2017 trip said. The press release went on to say that this trip was an opportunity “to build communication channels and networks for Chinese companies who are looking for development in the United States.”
The Xi’an report also said the delegation 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.”
Busby’s participation in a delegation meeting with a representative of People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries is likely to face scrutiny due to the US government’s repeated warnings about the group over the years.
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.”
A 2022 report from the Biden administration’s Director of National Intelligence also warned about the group and highlighted how US-based Chinese consulates like the one that sponsored Busby’s trip to China “play an active role” in “foreign influence operations” on behalf of the CCP, which was the case with Hochul’s former deputy chief of staff, who was coordinating with the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in New York.
Another report from the trip said Busby and the delegation met with Chen Xiangming, secretary of Shanghai’s Songjiang District, and several other CCP leaders from the area.
“Mr. Cheng Xiangmin expressed thanks to the New York Center for its long-term work and efforts in establishment of friendship between the two cities, and said he looked forward to strengthening communication with the ‘New Majority’ Alliance and further cooperation in various fields such as science and technology, health care and education,” the report said.
“Mr. John Wang said that the signing of the memorandum of friendship between the Songjiang District and the Bronx was a major step forward in the future cooperation,” the report continued. “The New York Center is willing to help Songjiang and the Bronx to develop more channels to cooperate, such as exchanging medical education resources between Einstein Medical School and Shanghai Medical Colleges/Schools; as well as building exchange programs for the Montefiore Medical Center and the medical facilities in Songjiang.”
The revelation about Busby’s ties to China comes as Harris faces scrutiny over choosing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her vice presidential pick. His decades-long ties to China have been a thorn in the Harris campaign’s side.
Fox News Digital reached out to Busby, Black Chambers, Harris’ office, and the New York in China Center, but did not receive any responses.