The Strange Link Between a Fake Hunter Biden Dossier and the Hong Kong Democracy Protests

In the latest twist to Republicans’ sprawling efforts to tie Joe Biden to the Chinese Communist Party, an American senior executive of a Trump-supporting Hong Kong tabloid has resigned after admitting to paying a blogger as much as $10,000 to commission a fake “intelligence” report about Hunter and Joe Biden’s supposed financial ties to China.

The story of the ginned-up 64-page dossier highlights the global reach of Trump’s nationalist movement—and a strange connection between what remains of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and the impending U.S. election that some of the movement’s supporters believe could decide the city’s fate.

The conspiracy theory-filled report, published in early September, was promoted over the last week by prominent Trump allies including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who shared the article with his 2.3 million followers, and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who waved a copy of the report on his talk show, calling it “corroborating evidence” to allegations against the Bidens. But NBC then reported that neither the Swiss “security analyst” who authored the report nor the “intelligence firm” he supposedly wrote it for appear to actually exist.

It turns out the report, which claimed Hunter Biden had financial holdings in China worth tens of millions of dollars and “a direct line to the Politburo” of China, was in fact authored at least in part by Christopher Balding, an American blogger and academic. He told NBC that he had written at least part of the report under the name of “Martin Aspen,” whose headshot appears to have been generated by a computer, for a supposed intelligence firm, “Typhoon Investigations,” whose address is a Mac repair shop. Balding also told NBC that the report had actually been commissioned by Apple Daily, a Hong Kong tabloid that’s critical of the Chinese government.

Apple Daily followed quickly with a statement that the newspaper had “nothing to do with the document,” in an article entitled “Jimmy Lai ‘knew nothing’ of Biden dossier, rebuts NBC report Apple was behind it all” that included another denial from Lai. “I will not do such a thing because it pertains to one’s integrity,” his paper quoted him as saying, adding that the affair had dealt “great damage” to his reputation.

A search of Apple Daily’s website shows that the paper has published at least 40 articles mentioning the former vice president’s son since September, many of them echoing the claims found in Balding’s dossier.

Apple Daily’s founder, a pro-Trump Hong Kong billionaire named Jimmy Lai, tweeted a denial of any personal involvement with the fake report, instead blaming his senior executive Mark Simon. “Mark used my private company’s money to reimburse for the research he requested. It’s only US$10,000 so he didn’t have to have my approval.”

Hours later, Simon, an American and longtime GOP operative, posted a resignation letter on Twitter, explaining he was not “taking the fall” but was “taking responsibility.”

“I operate unconventionally as most of you know. I regret the trouble I have caused here,” he wrote. “I am so sorry for this failing. I know I let a lot of you down.”

Simon, a former Navy intelligence officer whose father was a CIA agent, has been instrumental in pushing American right-wing politics onto Hong Kong democrats. In 2009 he introduced members of Hong Kong’s opposition parties to Sarah Palin, and in 2014, he arranged a yacht trip between former George W. Bush adviser Paul Wolfowitz and Lai, as pro-democracy protests gripped the port city. Simon also orchestrated a meeting between Lai, Vice President Mike Pence, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2019, as protests flared up again.

Simon’s resignation is making waves in Hong Kong, where pro-democracy protesters have been confronting militarized police for over a year in a desperate bid to achieve democratic elections in the former British colony — and see Apple Daily as an indispensable ally.

Amid rapidly deteriorating press freedom in Hong Kong, the paper is one of the few major media outlets in the city still considered to be supportive of the protest movement, which the Chinese government has essentially outlawed after unilaterally passing a far-reaching “national security law” for Hong Kong in July.

Days after the law was passed, Lai was arrested on charges of colluding with foreign forces, while hundreds of police officers raided the Apple Daily offices in downtown Hong Kong. (Lai has since been released on bail.) As a show of solidarity after Lai’s arrest, pro-democracy Hong Kongers bought the stock of Apple Daily’s parent company, Next Media, causing shares to briefly pump 1,000 percent.

However, along with their pro-democracy positions, Apple Daily has been known to promote nativist, anti-immigrant sentiment and, increasingly, Donald Trump. These stories mirror their executives’ longstanding ties to U.S. right-wing politics.

But Apple Daily’s bosses have never made forceful public appeals for collaboration between the GOP and Hong Kongers until this year. While many pro-democracy Hong Kongers do not support Trump—who has called the Hong Kong protests “riots” and said “China could stop them if they wanted,” pro-Trump and anti-Biden sentiment in the city has grown in recent months, in part thanks to Apple Daily’s portrayal of the American president as a potential savior.

In May, Apple Daily published a front-page letter begging the American president to help Hong Kong. Days later, Lai gave an interview to CNN, addressing Trump: “Mr. President, you’re the only one who can save us. If you save us, and stop China’s aggressions, you also save the world.”