By Elishya Perera
WASHINGTON (CWBN)_US President Donald Trump’s tax records show he has pursued licensing deals in China for years, and that he maintains a Chinese bank account as well.
A review of Trump’s tax records by the New York Times shows that an unreported bank account in China has been controlled by Trump International Hotel Management and that account paid $188,561 in taxes in China between 2013 and 2015.The records also show that he has invested at least $192,000 in five companies established to pursue projects in China over multiple years.
Meanwhile, an earlier report published by the Times showed that he paid only $750 in US taxes, both, in the year he won the presidency and his first year in the White House.
Washington Post’s investigation
According to the Washington Post, in 2013, Trump Hotels signed a memorandum of understanding with State Grid Corp. of China, for an urban complex in Beijing, which included hotels, service apartments and office space. According to Robby Qiu, a former director of Trump’s Greater China office, the deal was potentially worth between $100 million and $150 million over fifteen years.
Subsequently, in October 2016, just before the US election, Trump Hotels Chief Executive Eric Danziger had told an Asia Pacific hospitality conference in Hong Kong that the group was still aiming to open Trump hotels in 20 to 30 cities in China.
However, Trump has consistently berated China and has called its leaders “our enemy” and accused them of “ruining our way of life.”
Therefore, the recent disclosures could undermine the president’s efforts to paint Democratic Nominee Joe Biden as being soft on China, as the President claimed that the Biden family is “selling out our country” to China. The Trump campaign has even accused Biden’s son for having “inked a billion-dollar deal” with the government-owned Bank of China, allegations that have not been substantiated.
A lawyer for the Trump Organization, Alan Garten, told the Times that the company had “opened an account with a Chinese bank having offices in the United States, in order to pay the local taxes”, and to “explore the potential for hotel deals in Asia”. “No deals, transactions or other business activities ever materialised and, since 2015, the office has remained inactive,” he said.
