Suspected corruption: Biden defends business in Ukraine and China

Hunter Biden, the son of former US Vice President Joe Biden, defended his work for the first time in Ukraine and China. Biden, who had been silent for months on allegations of corruption, told his lawyer that he was leaving the board of the Chinese company that is at the center of criticism. He also said he would not work for a foreign company if his father, Joe Biden, was elected president in 2020.

US President Donald Trump suspects the Bidens of having been involved in corrupt operations in Ukraine as well as in China.

"Hunter has done his business independently," his lawyer George Mesires said in a statement. "He did not think it appropriate to discuss it with his father - and he did not."

Equity Funds Founded days after Biden visit to China

Biden had been accompanied by his son Hunter on a China trip in his former post as Vice President in 2013. Hunter Biden was busy building a Chinese equity fund. On the sidelines of his father's official visit, he met with a Chinese banker. The fund was then established ten days after Bidens visited China.

According to Trump, Hunter Biden is said to have used his father's trip to get $ 1.5 billion in China for the fund. A spokesman for Hunter Biden had said that he had invested himself in the stock funds only years after the trip to China. Only in 2017 - after the departure of his father from the office of Vice President - he had acquired shares in the amount of $ 420,000.

There is no evidence that the biden in China were involved in illegal activities. The same applies to their activities in Ukraine. Trump's suspicion is apparently based on rumors that Joe Biden, as vice president, has been working to dismiss a former Ukrainian Attorney General to protect his son Hunter from corruption investigations.

The US Democrats accuse Trump of having abused the power of his office in the affair, so that a foreign government interferes in his election campaign for the upcoming presidential election 2020. Trump had encouraged the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Selenskyj in a telephone call to investigate his rival Joe Biden. He also called on the Beijing government to investigate bids.