Hunter Biden tried to broker oil deal between Chinese firm and ex-Kazakh prime minister, emails show

Hunter Biden tried to strike an exceedingly lucrative, “forever” business deal with a state-owned Chinese energy company that’s since been sanctioned by the US over its ties to the Chinese military, according to the latest emails unearthed from his infamous laptop.

The plan would have apparently also involved the then-prime minister of Kazakhstan, who was arrested on suspicion of treason last month following his ouster as head of the country’s intelligence service.

The emails date to April 2014, when Biden’s dad, President Joe Biden, was vice president and about a year before father and son apparently posed for a photo with the Kazakhstani official, Karim Massimov, in a Washington, DC, restaurant.

The correspondence shows Hunter Biden and then-business partner Devon Archer — who has since cooperated in a tax probe of the first son — discussing an offer to help find “investment opportunities” for the China National Offshore Oil Corp.

That same month, both men were appointed to the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings — which paid Biden as much as $1 million a year — and Archer suggested that a deal involving the two overseas firms would set them up for life.

“If we can connect the dots here between CNOOC and Bursima we can do only that, forever,” Archer wrote on April 8, 2014.

Less than 10 minutes later, Biden responded: “Thinking the same thing, fraught with many land mines- but…”

“Many…don’t even know if we could pull it off but it’s a major option,” Archer wrote back.

A signboard of CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corporation) is displayed on the rooftop of a building in Ji'nan city.

In a follow-up message, Biden brought up the possibility of involving the oil-rich, former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, writing, “What about KZ? How is the shut down of there (sic) mega will going to effect (sic) our guys?”

Archer replied that he’d “been thinking about that” and that he’d be “speaking to Masimof’s (sic) son today,” adding: “I’ll let you know how that turns out.”

A month later, on May 7, Hunter Biden emailed Burisma executive Vadim Pozharskyi that he’d “landed in Beijing” and that “one of the principal reasons is to discuss possible cooperation with CNOC(sic)/China and Burisma.”

That same day, Archer also wrote to Pozharski and said, “I will provide a full itinerary for KZ next week but the primary meeting is set with the Prime Minister of KZ, Masimof (sic), on June 2nd.”

“Everything will revolve around that meeting and the subject will be securing the highest quality proven reserve fields in KZ,” he said.

Archer also noted “a preliminary plan” for him and someone identified only as “Alex” to fly from Kazakhstan to Beijing.

two Chinese paramilitary guards watch as China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC)'s first independent deep-water oil drilling rig, leaves the port of Qingdao.

“If you are able to coordinate CNOOC cooperation meetings in that time frame we would be hopeful you and Nikolay can join as well,” he added.

World Food Program USA Board Chairman Hunter Biden attends the World Food Program USA's Annual McGovern-Dole Leadership Award Ceremony.

In the recovered emails, Biden and his business partner discuss an offer to help find “investment opportunities” for the China National Offshore Oil Corp.

“Nikolay” appears to be a reference to Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky, a former Ukrainian government official who reportedly left the country before being charged in absentia in 2020 in an alleged corruption case.

In a follow-up email, Hunter Biden asked Archer to explain “how a Burisma/KZ/China deal would look,” to which Archer said, “Quick answer is I do not have an answer just yet but that’s what I am thinking about, researching and formulating.”

“CNOOC is a nice to have in the situation that make it a silver bullet. I do know that,” he added.

China’s third-largest oil company, CNOOC was sanctioned by former President Donald Trump’s outgoing administration in January 2021 over its activities in the South China Sea, where officials said it was preventing other companies from engaging in offshore exploration and extraction of oil and gas.

“CNOOC acts a bully for the People’s Liberation Army to intimidate China’s neighbors, and the Chinese military continues to benefit from government civil-military fusion policies for malign purposes,” then-Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said at the time.

The move, which blocks CNOOC from purchasing American high technology without a special license, came a month after it was added to a blacklist of alleged Chinese military companies in which US citizens aren’t allowed to invest.

The China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) headquarters stand in Beijing.

The emails were contained on the hard drive of a laptop computer that was left at a Delaware repair shop in April 2019 — as first revealed by The Post — which Hunter Biden has said may have been stolen from him before being abandoned.

They were published Tuesday by the Daily Mail, which said the messages don’t make clear whether the deal under discussion ever went through.

There’s been no previous reporting on such an agreement.

A security guard stands outside the China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) Ltd., headquarters in Beijing.

In June, the Washington Examiner was the first to report on the emails regarding the planned meeting with Massimov, including how Hunter Biden ditched his Secret Service detail in Paris in May 2014 to travel to Kazakhstan.

Last month, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) — who have been investigating Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings — accused the Secret Service of improperly redacting records of his travels, saying documents they received  “do not show whether [Secret Service] personnel or Hunter Biden traveled to Kazakhstan in May or June 2014.”

Lawyers for Hunter Biden — who is pursuing a new career as a self-taught painter — and Archer, who faces sentencing later this month in an unrelated fraud case, didn’t immediately return requests for comment.