JUST HAGGLING OVER HIS PRICE:

In Yang's new world of selling access to the Trump family any Mar-a-Lago event would do, not only ones that would benefit his 2020 campaign for reelection.

She pitched a pro-Israel event -- planned last minute by a local activist -- as an opportunity to meet top American politicians. A Mar-a-Lago New Year's party became an invite to an exclusive dinner with the president's family. A fundraiser for orphaned babies by a Virginia-based Christian group became a chance to meet the president, according to her company website.

On her website, which was taken down after initial reporting, Yang said she invites "elites from various places, including Chinese elite in the U.S., Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Australia, Europe and other countries and regions." One online advertisement for a planned 2019 event listed different levels of sponsorship; the top two with the most perks, Diamond Title Sponsor and Gold Sponsor, were reserved for foreigners only.

Yang's ads caught the eye of Dr. Charles Lee, an event bundler and seller of access to Chinese clients looking for face time with major politicians.

Lee bundled Yang's 2018 Safari Night invitation into an all inclusive eight-day "business travel diplomacy package" that for $13,000 would take guests from Beijing to visit the United Nations, U.S. Congress, and finish at Trump's South Florida residence. He brought three more Chinese businessmen to the pro-Israel event.

Jon Deng, who knew Yang through Florida's small but growing Asian-American Republican community, said it was common knowledge that Mar-a-Lago events are packaged and advertised online in China.

"It's sort of a known fact that there are buyers, and there are sellers," he said.

In the 14 months after they were pictured together at Safari Night 2018, Lee would recruit clients for five more events advertised by Yang as opportunities to pay for face time with Donald Trump.

Together Yang and Lee brought more than 20 guests to Mar-a-Lago in 2018, according to their posts on WeChat, the Chinese equivalent of Facebook.

According to his website, Lee's honored guests included an executive of a line of beauty products who settled for a photo with future Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after Trump did not attend the pro-Israel event and a Chinese actress, Sun Ye, who The New York Times first reported took a picture with both adult Trump sons on New Year's Eve. She said she was staying with Yang at the time.

Yang and Lee also promoted access to a March 2018 fundraiser for Trump's reelection campaign, an event only citizens and green card holders could legally pay to attend. On the list of attendees was the owner of a chain of preschools in China who also served in the lower body of the Chinese legislature.

Yang has maintained that she has no allegiance to the Chinese government. But Lee's travel packages were explicitly intended to promote Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2015 business diplomacy agenda. The initiative included pushing Chinese business owners to promote China's Communist Party through their connections abroad, according to Lee's website. The website was taken down after Lee spoke with a Herald reporter.

Lee, who sometimes calls himself Prince Charles, is the founder of United Nations Chinese Friendship Association, which gives out "U.S.-China Ambassador" awards to clients who attend Trump events. Despite the name of the organization, no such group is listed as affiliated with the United Nations. On his website, Lee also claimed that two prominent Asian-American members of Congress, Reps. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., and Judy Chu, D-Calif., served as members of the group's advisory board. Their staffs told the Miami Herald that was not true and said they would ask Lee to remove their names. [...]

Presidential tourism has historically involved the homes or estates of dead presidents. But living, breathing sightseeing -- like what is on offer at Mar-a-Lago -- seems to be a new phenomenon, said June Teufel Dreyer, a professor of political science and China expert at the University of Miami.

"This is the first time I've heard of sitting presidents and their homes being put on tour," Teufel Dreyer said. "I think it's definitely new for China. I don't think this was done for Ronald Reagan or even somebody who was very nice to the Chinese like Barack Obama."

Yang and Lee are not alone in their efforts to capitalize on their access to the Trump family. According to a Herald analysis of Chinese social media and classified advertisements, at least five other groups are marketing Trump-related tours to Chinese elites. 

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