WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump spent a decade of failing projects in China, running an operating fee there during his first run for president and partnering with a major government-controlled company, The New York Times. Reported Tuesday.
China is just one of three foreign countries – the other is Britain and Ireland – where Trump maintains a bank account, according to a Times analysis of the president’s tax records. Foreign accounts do not appear on Trump’s public financial advertisements, where they must be listed as personal assets, as they are held under a corporate name.
China’s account is controlled by Trump International Hotels Management LLC, a tax report that states that 2013 188,561 in taxes were paid in China between 2013 and 2015 when licensing deals were launched.
In response to questions from The Times, Trump Organization lawyer Alan Garten said the company “opened an account in a Chinese bank with office fees in the United States to pay local taxes associated with doing business.” There. He said the company opened the account after setting up office fees in China to explore the possibilities of hotel deals in Asia.
“No deals, transactions or other business activities have ever materialized and since 2015, these office fees have been dormant,” Garrett said. “However, the bank account remains open, it has not been used for any other purpose.”
Garton China will not identify the bank where the account is located.
China remains an issue in the 2020 presidential campaign, from the presidential trade war to the emergence of the coronavirus epidemic to its belts. His campaign seeks to misrepresent former Vice President Joe Biden the dangers posed by China’s growing power. Trump has also sought to tar his opponent with extremely weak or unsatisfactory claims about Hunter Biden’s business dealings while he was in his father’s office.
As for the former vice president, he has not shown any income or business dealings in China, with financial announcements in public, with income tax returns he has voluntarily declared. However, there is evidence of Trump’s efforts to do business there.
Like Russia, where he explored hotel and tower projects in Moscow without success, Trump has long sought a licensing deal in China. His efforts went at least as far back as 2006 when he filed trademark applications in Hong Kong and the mainland. Many government approvals came from China after he became president.
In 2008, Trump pushed for an office fee tower project in Guangzhou that never goes down. But his efforts gained momentum in 2012 with the introduction of the Shanghai opening fee, and tax records show that one of Trump’s Chinese companies, THC China Development LLC, claimed a $ 84,000 deduction that year for travel expenses, legal fees and office fees.
The Times said Trump’s tax records show he has invested at least $ 192,000 in five small companies he has set up over the years to pursue projects in China. Those companies have claimed at least 97 97,400 in business expenses since 2010, most recently in 2018 with some small payments for taxes and accounting fees.
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