Trump may not be able to say China, but that doesn’t mean he can’t make a profit from it. While hardliners are concerned that Trump rolled over for Chinese leadership by backing off from his stance on Taiwan while getting nothing in exchange, that’s completely untrue. Trump got plenty.
The Chinese government has granted preliminary approval for 35 Trump-related trademarks in businesses ranging from mining and construction to restaurants, hotels and golf courses.
And he’s not the only one.
A New York real estate company owned by the family of President Trump’s son-in-law has been negotiating to sell a $400 million stake in its Fifth Avenue flagship skyscraper to a Chinese insurance company with ties to leading families of the Communist Party.
Just what are the emoluments regulations for a special advisor slot that’s already completely free from nepotism rules? Does it matter? The Kushner news has emerged just as Trump is getting ready for his first meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping. But it’s certainly not Trump’s only connection to the Chinese government.
When a Chinese American businesswoman who sells access to powerful people recently purchased a $15.8 million penthouse in a building owned by President Donald Trump, the deal raised a key question. Was this a straightforward real estate transaction, or was this an effort to win favor with the new administration?
Since Trump was elected, he’s racked up lucrative trademarks that had been previously been delayed or denied, his son-in-law’s family has lined up a monster deal, and Trump has sold one of his most expensive penthouse properties to a very interesting character.
Further investigation by Mother Jones has unearthed a new element to the story: Chen has ties to important members of the Chinese ruling elite and to an organization considered a front group for Chinese military intelligence.
Meanwhile, the group that’s handing Kushner such a massive payday also has deep ties with the Chinese government.
If signed, the potential agreement would create a financial marriage of two politically powerful families in the world’s two biggest economies, but it would also present the possibility of glaring conflicts of interest. The Kushner family, owners of the tower, would reap a financial windfall courtesy of a Chinese company, even as Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to Mr. Trump as well as his son-in-law, helps oversee American foreign policy.
Does the sale of these properties to agents related to the Chinese government, or Trump’s Taiwan flip-flop followed by the award of those valuable trademarks mean that Trump is acting as an agent of the Chinese government? No. Or at least, not in the way most people think.
What it means is that Donald Trump is uniquely positioned to profit from every nuance of United States policy. Trump supporters were often quoted at being unconcerned by his “unpresidented” conflicts of interest, because of assumptions that “if Trump does something good for his business, it will probably help me, too.” But that’s not the kind of business Trump is in. Getting trademarks that make it more valuable to sell his name in China creates no jobs in the United States. Selling properties in Manhattan piles up cash for Trump and Kushner, but it does nothing for Midwest workers.
Trump can make a personal fortune by making changes in US policy while doing nothing for anyone else.
Anbang, a huge Chinese conglomerate with almost $300 billion in assets, is owned by 39 companies, many of them shell companies that, when traced, lead to empty offices or government registration bureaus, according to Chinese government records. At least 35 of the companies, which collectively control more than 92 percent of Anbang, trace all or part of their ownership to relatives of Mr. Wu, to Deng’s granddaughter or to Chen Xiaolu, the marshal’s son, though the three no longer show up as owners in company records, The New York Times reported in September.
China long ago stopped even the pretense of being “communist.” Instead it’s a single-party authoritarian regime dominated by a few families who control the country both politically and economically. It’s a place where both workers and regulations can be disregarded, and where the elite define what’s legal or illegal. Now they’re partnering with the people who are doing a good job of taking the United States down the same path.