Biden appointee played key role in recruiting Chinese businesses to Delaware: ‘Longtime friends’
Biden appointed Marquardt to the US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad (US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad) in 2022.
A Biden appointee who donated tens and thousands of dollars to Biden’s campaigns, as well as being married to an aide to then-Sen. Biden at the time, played a key role in attracting Chinese companies to Delaware.
Michael Marquardt has been advising international businesses for the past 20 years. In recent years, he helped the Delaware Prosperity Partnership recruit Chinese companies to invest in Delaware.
Marquardt has been a global advisor for DPP since 2017. He has used social media to highlight the work he has done to introduce Chinese business leaders to Delaware and Chinese companies.
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Marquardt wrote on Facebook in 2015 that “We welcomed today more than 50 Chinese business executives from The First State. This visit was planned and sponsored Bank of China.” After a presentation on Delaware’s advantages as a “gateway to America”, we visited Incyte Corporation, one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States. They were impressed. Delaware is their only state other than New York City or Washington DC.
Marquardt had posted on Facebook a day earlier from New York City that then-Delaware Governor. Jack Markell, an ally of Biden, was presented with the International Leadership Award by China’s General Chamber of Commerce in Bank of China’s new US Headquarters building at 7 Bryant Park, Manhattan.
Marquardt added, “The building was not finished yet and it was incredible to see it even before it opened officially.” This ceremony ended a day of matching sessions between more than 100 Chinese companies and over 100 American companies, among them 21 Delaware companies.
That same year, Marquardt posted on Facebook an article touting Delaware funding for “the expansion of a China summer abroad program for high school students studying Mandarin.” He also posted the Twitter hashtag “#ForwardThinkingDelaware.”
“And today, we welcomed 2 buses with Chinese business executives to @DelawareGlobal in order to learn more about Delaware,” Marquardt wrote on X back in 2015. He also posted a picture of two buses with Chinese businessmen on board.
Marquardt, in 2016, the last year of the Obama/Biden administration posted on Facebook that he was in attendance at “a very special event” in New York City to “celebrate the strengthening business relations between China and the United States.”
He added, “Global Delaware is front and centre once again!”
According to photos Marquardt shared, he attended the China-U.S. Economic and Trade Cooperation Conference. Hu Chunhua delivered the keynote remarks, at that time a powerful member of CPC Central Committee’s political bureau and the party secretary for the Guangdong Province.
Chunhua, who is vice-chairperson for the 14th CPPCC National Committee in China, is a “central component” of China’s United Front System, which aims to “coopt and neutralize potential sources of opposition to its policies and authority,” according to a report from the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission.
According to a post on X from Andrea Tinianow, a Delaware Department of State official who created Global Delaware, aimed at “helping Delaware companies expand overseas, attracting foreign companies to set up operations in Delaware, as well as strengthening Delaware’s leadership role in corporate governance,” Marquardt travelled to Washington, D.C., later that year for the closing ceremony of China – U.S. Tourism Year 2016.
According to her Linkedin page, Marquardt also served as chief innovation officer and vice president of Global Kompass Strategies Inc. a “globally respected consultancy firm” that she founded. According to a Facebook post from 2016, Marquardt had been invited to the luncheon of Vice Premier Wang Yang by the China General Chamber of Commerce, a New York-based organization that was praised by CCP leaders.
Max Baucus, the ambassador of President Obama to China and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg were among those who attended.
Marquardt called the meeting “productive” in a Facebook post from 2018.
In a 2014 BBC article, the CEC was described as “the richest club in China”. It is comprised of “46 top Chinese business leaders”, “politicians” and “academics” along with “other advisers” including ‘billionaires’. According to the group’s last-year annual report, it now has more than 60 members.
The annual report stated that Jack Ma is the honorary chairman of the club. He founded the CCP-linked Alibaba, which reportedly created surveillance technology used to target Uyghur Muslims living in Xinjiang. Liu Chuanzhi has also held several top positions within the CCP including being a deputy at the 16th, 17th National Congresses as well as a deputy at the 9th National People’s Congress and 10th National People’s Congress.
Marquardt wrote in a social media post from 2019 that he had traveled to Washington, D.C., where he “enjoyed reconnecting” with long-time friends at the SelectUSA Summit, representing DPP. SelectUSA is “a federal government program located within the U.S. Department of Commerce that promotes and facilitates business investment in the United States.”
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, China played a significant role in Delaware’s economy. It was the recipient $498 million worth of export goods in 2023. Global Leadership Coalition.
In 2022, CGCC posted a blog about “member companies” visiting Wilmington, Delaware to learn more about “Delaware’s economy through engagements with local officials” and included a “presentation by DPP’s Marquardt, and Kurt Foreman, the group’s president and chief executive officer.
The post stated that “after the visit to DPP headquarters, members enjoyed an exclusive welcome dinner hosted by Governor John Carney in the historic Hotel du Pont downtown Wilmington,”
Marquardt is profiled on Linkedin in 2023. He gives several quotes about how he loves working with foreign investors looking to invest in America, such as “It’s always amazing when someone from another nation knows so little about Delaware.”
He continues to say Delaware.
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