Following revelations that corporate lobbyist and Biden family acolyte Frank Luntz rents a room to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, The National Pulse can reveal the Chinese Communist Party ties to the luxury building both men call home.
The downtown D.C. residence – which The National Pulse is choosing not to name for security reasons – is owned and leased by Sotheby’s International Realty.
The company is an offshoot of the auction house Sotheby’s, whose largest shareholder is Taikang, a Chinese Communist Party-linked life insurance company “run by the grandson-in-law of Chairman Mao Zedong.” As The Wall Street Journal also notes, “most of the stakeholders are state-owned Chinese enterprises.”
Sotheby’s has also collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party on auction ventures.
In 2012, the company signed a 10-year joint-venture agreement to form Sotheby’s Beijing Auction Co. Ltd., the first international auction house in China, alongside the state-owned Beijing Gehua Cultural Development Group.
The company, which has received countless awards from the Chinese government, describes itself as having a “mainstream public opinion propaganda position in the capital” and being “a state-owned backbone cultural enterprise.” It has also collaborated with Beijing’s Party Committee Propaganda Department to help “boost the construction of socialist spiritual civilization” as well as designed floats to commemorate the Chinese Communist Party’s anniversary with themes including “building socialism in China.”
The same firm that leases to Luntz – and by extension McCarthy – has a comparable relationship to the Chinese Communist Party.
Since 2014, Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC has “conducted business in mainland China” under the auspices of Beijing Xin Rui Zeng Yi International Real Estate Brokerage. “Doing business in China is a key milestone for our brand,” said Philip White, president and chief executive officer, Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC.
These ties are concerning in light of China’s National Intelligence Law, which stipulates that “any organization or citizen shall support, assist and cooperate with the state intelligence work in accordance with the law, and keep the secrets of the national intelligence work known to the public.”
