'Peril’ and ‘Chinatown’: New Epstein Records Tie U.S. Power Brokers to Beijing-Linked Elites

WASHINGTON — Newly released documents from the Jeffrey Epstein estate show the convicted sex offender operating far closer to the heart of China’s political and financial power structures than previously understood — advising former U.S. Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers on a sexual pursuit involving an elite Chinese Communist Party family, and privately warning Steve Bannon to stay “safe” in his dealings with exiled Chinese billionaire Miles Guo, who has since been convicted in a U.S. fraud case involving more than $1 billion.

The same warning messages to Bannon are explosive in their own right, showing Epstein appeared to be concerned about the safety of both himself and Bannon, “if either one of us, in different investigations will need to testify publicly” – while also flagging casino mogul Steve Wynn, who was later sued by the U.S. Justice Department in a Foreign Agents Registration Act action alleging he lobbied then-president Donald Trump at the request of senior Chinese security officials to remove Miles Guo from the United States.

In the same thread – also focused on the “madness” of men being caught in the #MeToo-era sexual harassment movement – Bannon appeared to reassure Epstein that he knew what he was doing with Guo, whom he described as “like Trump — an instrument.”

Earlier in that exchange, another striking line from Epstein shows how he viewed a roster of world leaders: “I have asked to start a new game theory course at harvard called the gangster / game. it describes. / trump. putin assad xi, duerte erdogan. gambino.”

The Epstein story has long fuelled persistent theories that he was effectively an agent of one or more intelligence services, running a kompromat operation that drew powerful men into sexual relationships with underage or very young women and quietly banked the leverage. As newly released files have turned Epstein into a partisan football in Washington — with Republican lawmakers now joining Democrats in demanding a full document dump, and Donald Trump, after years of minimizing his own links to Epstein, now calling for complete disclosure — the picture has only broadened. The Bureau’s review of hundreds of pages of emails and chat logs portrays Epstein as a confidant and fixer embedded in overlapping elite networks, including those tied not just to Western power brokers but to Beijing-adjacent actors.

Among the newly released records is an email chain from November 20, 2018, connecting Summers, Epstein, and Keyu Jin, an economist at the London School of Economics. In the days since The Harvard Crimson first detailed Summers’ messages with Epstein, Summers has announced he will “step back” from some public commitments while continuing to teach at Harvard, citing shame over his decision to keep engaging with Epstein.

Much of the coverage has focused on his inappropriate discussions about pursuing a sexual relationship with a younger “mentee.” Far less attention has gone to another dimension of the revelations: that one of the United States’ most influential economic figures was entangled in a relationship with the daughter of an elite Chinese Communist Party financial official — a relationship in which he clearly provided professional guidance, and which likely enhanced her standing in Western policy and business circles.

In the November 2018 chain, Jin wrote to Summers from a professional address: “Did RA come back with answers to the yellow highlighted? Did you take a look at the section that was written up? Apart from your revision of intro there was the first section. Keyu Jin.”

Summers forwarded the message to Epstein’s personal account. Epstein replied that evening that Jin was “already begining [sic] to sound needy :) nice,” making clear he was reacting directly to her correspondence and positioning himself as a confidant as Summers’ interest in his mentee deepened.

Keyu Jin is the daughter of Jin Liqun, one of the most powerful financial officials in modern China — a former vice minister of finance, vice president of the Asian Development Bank, and founding president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a flagship institution of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative. In December 2018, Jin emailed Summers to thank him for his support of “her and her father.” Summers again forwarded the note to Epstein, writing that he had “sent a comment in mtg w her father flattering her father and saying other China officials had flattered him as well.”

The Bureau has previously reported on Jin Liqun’s overlapping relationships with Western figures including Mark Carney and Michael Bloomberg in green-finance and infrastructure initiatives, identifying him as a key bridge between CCP state capitalism and Western financial elites.

These emails show Epstein privy to that network at an intimate level — reading Jin’s correspondence, discussing her father, and coaching Summers on the relationship’s sexual dimension. The documents show Epstein acting as a “wing man” and sounding board for a former U.S. Treasury secretary as he courted a woman from one of Beijing’s most influential families.