(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Vice President Kamala Harris received a generous campaign donation from a Chinese national just months after this individual’s company was awarded an even more generous grant under the Harris-led Clean School Bus program.
On Thursday, the Washington Free Beacon revealed that Stella Li ( Ke Li), the president of BYD America—a subsidiary of BYD Company—donated $50,000 to Harris’s campaign in November 2023. Coincidentally, the EPA had just granted $395,000 to BYD America in May of the same year.
Harris and EPA Administrator Michael Regan led the creation of the Clean Bus Program as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
According to the Free Beacon, BYD America’s grant was to fund an electric bus for the Princeton Joint Unified School District in northern California, Harris’s hometown.
EPA spokesperson Remmington Belford claimed the federal agency was unaware whether BYD America was providing its buses to other school districts that applied for the grant program.
As reported by the outlet, Li donated $25,000 to the Biden Victory Fund and $18,000 to the Democratic National Committee in a donation earmarked for the Biden Victory Fund. She also gave $6,600 to the Biden campaign, which was the maximum allowed.
Earlier this year, President Joe Biden exited the 2024 presidential race, leaving Harris with a massive $96 million from the now-defunct Biden re-election campaign.
The Free Beacon noted that BYD Company identified Li as a Chinese national in its latest annual report and asserted in another document that Li has a “right of abode” in the United States.
Under federal law, only American citizens or permanent residents can make campaign contributions.
In September, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party scrutinized BYD over concerns regarding Chinese espionage. In 2020, a provision of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act targeted the company.
The NDAA blocked federal funding from being granted to any buses manufactured by a company that “is owned or controlled” by a subsidiary or related to a company based in China.
Headline USA contacted Li for comment, but a response was not returned before this piece was published early Friday morning.
