4 years before indictment, Hunter Biden tried to invest in NBA Global Game initiative with Magic Johnson, LeBron James
Right now, Hunter Biden finds himself battling in court over gun charges. Before he got caught up in that, the son of the president was part of a group looking to expand the NBA's outreach in China.
In 2017, Hunter Biden received notice of having 5% owenership in Harves Sports and Entertainment. One of his assistants reached out to him about traveling to China to meet with a business partner to help grow their business relationship.
Among the things that were to be discussed on Biden's visit to China was more NBA related content. Members of Harves Sports also said that they were working with LA Lakers legends LeBron James and Magic Johnson about the league having global games there. FOX Business reported on email exchanges between the two parties, but Biden never ended up making the trip to China.
The story also broke down messages about the group building NBA branded stadiums in mulitple locations across China. However, the project was put on hold after only two arenas were built.
Biden caught a lot of heat for the partnership, as some of the higher ups in the Harves Entertainment were connected to the Communist Party in China.
Hunter Biden connected to NBA-related censoring
While Hunter Biden might have been trying to help expand the NBA coverage in China, he's also connected to one of the biggest scandals between the two parties.
When he was the GM of the Houston Rockets, Daryl Morey had put out a tweet backing protests going on in Hong Kong at the time. The Rockets were a team heavily connected to China, thanks to Yao Ming. Morey's tweet did not go over well, and he was forced to apologize for his comments.
Along with Morey, James Harden and other higher-ups in the organization also came out and apologized for what had happened. China is a big market for the league, and they did not want to see that relationship go sour.
Around that same time, Hunter Biden's dad, then vice-president Joe Biden, cut a deal with China to expand their quota of American films sold in the Chinese market.
The NBA caught a lot of bad press for their censorship in this situation. Many accussed them of focusing more on profits then caring about people's rights. Biden's deal regarding Hollywood studios was only a further testament of that.