Breitbart News published an exclusive report Saturday exposing Democratic Rep. Vicente González (D-CA) for thousands of dollars in questionable interest income from a Chinese bank account.
Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-CA) reported his holdings in Bank of China, a state-owned Communist Party of China bank, worth more than $100,000 on three financial disclosure forms he recently filed with the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.
On the second page of his 2017, 2018 and 2019 annual disclosure documents, Gonzalez reported holdings in Bank of China valued between $100,001 and $250,000. Each report disclosed that Gonzalez earned between $2,501 and $5,000 per year in interest from the Bank of China account.
The congressman has other holdings of much higher value that do not earn as much interest, according to the disclosures. For example, his 2017 report filed in 2018 shows he had between $250,001 and $500,000 in an “Everbank” account that he reported not receiving interest on. His 2018 disclosure report shows an account with TIAA Bank worth between $250,001 and $500,000, on which he only charged interest of $201 to $1,000. There are other similar elements in all three reports, but the Bank of China holdings appear to be the best for the congressman, according to the financial disclosure forms. In all three reports – 2017, 2018 and 2019 – no other holdings or accounts paid the congressman the same high level of interest, or non-labor income, according to these disclosures – meaning his investment in a state-owned bank in a country hostile to the United States was particularly profitable for him.
This arrangement also benefits the Bank of China, and ultimately the Communist Party of China, because like other banks, the Congressman’s deposits in this account can be used by the Bank of China for other purposes and initiatives, such as potentially lending to other businesses that support Beijing‘s vision through things like the Belt and Road Initiative – China’s geopolitical push for global economic dominance. What’s more, according to the Bank of China website, there are only three cities in the U.S. with branches – one in New York, one in Chicago and one in Los Angeles – meaning there are no Bank of China branches in Gonzales’ Texas region.
The financial disclosure documents reported by the congressman have a range of asset values and income earned from them. That is, this Bank of China account, which Gonzalez has reported in the last three disclosure reports, earns at least 1 percent interest per year – if the actual non-labor income, or interest, is at the low end of the reporting range, at $2,501, and the actual account value is at the high end of the reporting range, at $250,000. But if, conversely, the account value is at the low end of the reporting range, at $100,000, and the interest income is at the high end of the reporting range, at $5,000, then this means that the interest could be as high as close to 5%. In either case, it is unusual for any account to have non-labor interest income of 1% to 5% per year on any stock holdings.
More information about the accounts and interest rates cannot be ascertained without more documentation and Gonzales’ cooperation. Gonzalez’s congressional office did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Breitbart News about his Chinese bank account, nor did it respond to a request to interview the congressman.
While Gonzales himself is not currently answering questions about it, when asked about these revealed truths, his Republican opponent in last year’s election, Monica de la Cruz-Hernandez, told Breitbart News that she found it disturbing.
“Vicente Gonzalez’s six-figure account at a Chinese bank is shocking and disturbing,” Hernandez told Breitbart News, “It’s simple: a U.S. Representative should never have such a close financial relationship with the national bank of our nation’s biggest opponent. That’s another reason why our district needs a new Congressman who shares our South Texas values – not Chinese (Communist) values.”
Gonzales’ financial arrangement with the Bank of China has been in his financial disclosures for three years, but this is the first Time it has come to light in a political news sense, and part of the reason it has gone unnoticed until now is that his district has historically been safe for Democrats. No Republican has represented Texas’ 15th Congressional District since its inception in 1903 in the early 20th century. After decades of Democratic control, the district was represented by the infamous late Democratic Rep. Kika De La Garza, who represented it for more than 30 years, from the mid-1960s until the late 1990s. That is until now when former Rep. Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX) took over the district. Gonzalez was first elected to the seat in 2016 and is currently in his third term.
Historically, Republicans have tended to either not run for the seat at all, or only mount nominal challenges that ultimately failed. That changed in 2020, when Dela Cruz Hernandez ran against Gonzalez and nearly defeated him in a surprisingly close stalemate. She came within just 6,000 votes – reducing Gonzalez’s total to just 50.05 percent of the district’s vote total. Her 47.06 percent of the vote shocked the political…
Republicans are excited about Hernandez running again in 2022, part of a growing trend that appears to be accelerated by President Trump (which has occurred in Florida as well as Texas), and Republicans are outperforming expectations among Hispanic voters.
A major reason why Republicans are winning more among Hispanics like this district than ever before is their efforts to associate Democrats with socialist and authoritarian regimes like the socialist regimes in Cuba or Venezuela, the corrupt governments in Central American countries, and even more importantly, the Communist Party of China in Beijing.
Last May, Gonzalez signed a letter to the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of self-described “moderate” Democrats who claim he wants to take a hard line against the Communist Party of China. In writing about the U.S.-China relationship, which Gonzales signed as “arguably the most influential bilateral relationship in the world,” Gonzales and his fellow Blue Dog Democrats argued that Americans should stand up to the Chinese Communist Party whenever they are threatened by it.
Since Gonzales and his office are not cooperating with the Breitbart News investigation, and he has not yet filed his 2020 financial disclosure form – (which is not due until May 2021) – it is unclear whether he kept his Chinese bank accounts in 2020 after the CCP virus pandemic.
The fact that a Democratic congressman has such a high-yielding account at a Chinese bank is significant in itself. The Bank of China publicly admits on its website that it is a “wholly state-owned commercial bank” and has been since the mid-1990s. The Bank of China website also states that the Communist Party of China enterprise is “the most global and integrated bank” in China, with “a comprehensive global service network with institutions in mainland China and 57 countries and regions.
“The site also pledges allegiance to Xi Jinping and his communist agenda – and says its goal is to help implement this Communist Party of China worldview globally and in China. “
Although Gonzales claimed in that Blue Dog Coalition letter he signed that he would be tough on the CCP, in actual House actions, such as votes on key legislation, Gonzales often sided with the CCP. For example, when Rep. Andy Barr (R-Texas) introduced the so-called “motion to recommit” (MTR) in May 2019 – a procedure by which the House minority forces an issue vote after legislation has passed – that would have prevented the transfer of jobs to China in a climate bill passed by the Democratic majority, Gonzales joined most other House Democrats in voting against the measure.
MTR failed, with one Republican joining a majority of Democrats in opposing it. But 14 Democrats sided with 192 House Republicans in support of the measure. Gonzales was not among those Democrats who voted with Republicans – he voted against protecting American jobs.
Gonzales also voted against another MTR later in 2019, this one from then-Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Calif.), which would have prohibited the U.S. Export-Import Bank from lending to entities controlled by the Chinese Communist government or organizations that support the actions of the Communist government. This time, that MTR won bipartisan support, with 194 Republicans voting for it and 9 Democrats voting for it, but Gonzales was not among them.
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