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Donald Trump maintains a bank account in China, where he sought licensing deals for years, according to a report that could undermine the president’s election campaign claim that he is tough on Beijing.
Tax records reviewed by the New York Times showed a previously unreported bank account in China that was controlled by Trump International Hotels Management. The account paid $ 188,561 in taxes in China between 2013 and 2015 in connection with potential licensing deals, according to the newspaper.
Previous reports from the Times showed that he paid just $ 750 in US taxes in 2016 and 2017.
Recent tax records also showed that Trump invested at least $ 192,000 in five companies tasked with making trade deals in China. Those companies claimed $ 97,400 in business expenses, including payments as recent as 2018, the Times reported.
Trump has launched his re-election campaign because of his ability to take on China on issues ranging from trade to human rights abuses in Xinjiang and political repression in Hong Kong, as well as responsibility for the spread of Covid-19. . With Trump, ties between China and the United States have reached their lowest point in decades.
The revelations also come after Trump accused his opponent, Joe Biden, of being “weak on China” and described the Biden family as “selling our country” to China. The Trump campaign has published ads targeting Biden’s son for having “signed a billion dollar deal” with the government-owned Bank of China, allegations that have not been substantiated.
Trump has previously carried out an office tower project in Guangzhou, southern China, which did not come to fruition. AFP reported in 2016 that Trump Hotel Collection negotiated with the state electricity company, State Grid Corporation of China, to mark and manage a major development in Beijing, resulting in a deal worth up to $ 150 million over 15 years. Negotiations were put on hold after the state-owned company became the focus of a corruption investigation.
An attorney for the Trump Organization, Alan Garten, told the Times that the company had “opened an account with a Chinese bank that has offices in the United States to pay local taxes.”
“Agreements, transactions or other commercial activities never materialized and, since 2015, the office has been inactive,” he said.
