Thread by @karolcummins

⛩Trumps Many Ties to China⛩

Remember per the Steel Dossier Trump was allegedly thrilled the media focused on Russia so there was less scrutiny of Trump’s business deals with China.

Most intriguing, though, are the claims in the Steele dossier alleging that the Trump camp was happy that the media focused on Russia because it meant there’d be less scrutiny of Trump’s corrupt deals in China “and other emerging countries.” Insert 2 pics
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Trump’s contradictory relationship with China. Trump thanks Xi for “his enlightenment on intellectual property and technology transfers.” About a month later, Trump followed up with this:

Trump’s pledge to help Chinese telecom giant ZTE is a foolish and alarming decision, one almost certainly made without consulting his national security or foreign policy teams.
amp.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/…

📌It’s a common knowledge that Chinese telecoms, especially ZTE, are agents for Chinese intelligence and use their technology and networks to gather information on Americans and share it with the Chinese government.
amp.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/…

📌The U.S. hit ZTE with sanctions for this behavior, and the company violated sanctions against both Iran and North Korea by selling them equipment.

Even Republicans didn’t shy from expressing their concern about Trump’s surprise plan.
amp.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/…

📌Trump said he was not only receptive but thankful for a briefing on the importance of Chinese technology from his good friend, President Xi of China.

📌Did Xi feed Trump a slightly different story about ZTE than the U.S. intelligence community did?
amp.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/…

📌Did Trump sell out the security of Americans & turn his back on major promises he made to his base?

📌This policy inverts his long-running narrative of China stealing US jobs;

📌Now he says it’s US’ responsibility to create more jobs in China.🤷‍♀️
amp.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/…

📌One month after Xi enlightened Trump about the wonders of Chinese technology, AFP reported that the Chinese government was investing up to $500 million in an Indonesian theme park that will feature Trump-brand hotels, residencies, and a golf course.
amp.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/…

📌Two days after that loan was announced, Trump tweeted his support for ZTE, pledging to use the U.S. Department of Commerce to help the company “get back into business, fast.”
amp.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/…

⛩ZTE⛩:

📌📌📌Chinese Intel via ZTE products have the capability to gather information about American users.

📌Is this one of Trump’s deals w/ Xi?

📌Allow Chinese intelligence to spy on and gather information on Americans?

📌Share info with Trump?

📌Any reciprocity?

As the Trump administration initiates a possible trade war with China, the president’s businesses continue to benefit from partnerships involving the Chinese government, via state-backed companies and investors.

📌Fake oppo? 📌Cover?
washingtonpost.com/politics/as-ta…

⛩TrumpChina Businesses⛩

Chinese government-backed firms are slated to work on parts of two large developments — in Dubai and Indonesia — that will include Trump-branded properties.
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The Trumps are the landlord to one of China’s top state-owned banks, which has occupied the 20th floor of Trump Tower in Manhattan since 2008. The bank’s lease is worth close to $2 million annually, according to industry estimates and a bank filing.
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📌And despite the Trump administration’s focus on American manufacturing, assembly-line workers in China still produce blouses, shoes and handbags for the clothing line created by IVANKA TRUMP, a WH adviser.
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The tariffs are not expected to affect the Trumps’ financial interests, but the family’s business presence in China is awkward as the two countries ratchet up their protectionism.

📌Cover?
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Trump’s business interest in China is long-standing.

He began applying for trademarks there in 2005, and in 2012, the Trump Hotel Collection opened an office in Shanghai, its first in Asia.
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Trump Org negotiated with a US subsidiary of Shanghai Municipal Investment Group, a large state-owned enterprise, to build a luxury project in Manhattan. The deal fell apart when Trump sought an ownership stake in the project without investing any capital.
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The proposed deal was handled by Jason Greenblatt, then a Trump Organization attorney and now a White House adviser and special representative on international negotiations.
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However, on March 26, 2015, the morning after Greenblatt sent the proposal, a broker on the deal, 📌Peter Wu, responded with alarm, saying it skewed from “the basic terms agreed to from our first meeting with Donald.”
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Greenblatt suggested that Ivanka Trump had scuttled it because she wanted an ownership stake without putting any of the company’s own money at risk.
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📌But other Trump business relationships with Chinese partners are fully active.

📌Multiple court cases have cited in allegations that the president is violating the Constitution’s “emoluments clause” by accepting payments from foreign governments.
washingtonpost.com/politics/as-ta…

📌In recent months, two of the Trump Organization’s foreign partners — developers in Dubai and Indonesia, each building residential complexes that include a Trump golf course — have announced new partnerships with state-run Chinese companies.
washingtonpost.com/politics/as-ta…

Trump received $141,000 in 2017 from the Dubai project, according to his financial disclosure statement. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka — a senior White House adviser — received about $2 million in severance from the Trump Organization
dailyrepublic.com/all-dr-news/wi…

📌On 6/10/18 Dubai’s DAMAC Properties announced that the state-run CSCEC had been awarded a contract to build roads & infrastructure at the new Akoya Oxygen.

📌📌Trump will be paid to operate a golf course (2nd in China) & paid for the use of his name.
washingtonpost.com/politics/as-ta…

Trump’s partner, DAMAC Properties, awarded a $32-million contract to the MEsubsidiary of China State Construction Engineering Corp to build a six-lane road as part of the residential piece of the Trump World Golf Club Dubai project called Akoya Oxygen.
mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-…

📌📌📌#DAMAC📌📌📌

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1028902135272886272?s=21

📌DAMAC Properties has awarded a construction K worth approximately AED 600 million to CSCEC for the construction of one of the towers at AYKON City, #DAMAC’s premiere luxury master development on Sheikh Zayed Road overlooking Dubai Canal.
damacproperties.com/en/media-centr…

📌NOTE re: CSCEC:

📌President Xi Jinping and President Putin Congratulate on Completion of Permanent Exhibition Hall for Site of 6th National Congress of CPC

english.cscec.com/Overseas58/Ove…

The Chinese company, known as CSCEC, is majority gov’t-owned, among others an arrangement that generally encourages growth & drives out competition. It was listed as the 7th largest CO in China & 37th worldwide w/ nearly $130B in revenues in 2014,
mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-…

📌In May 2018 Trump’s partner in Indonesia — MNC Corp. — announced that it had signed a construction contract with another state-run Chinese company, the Metallurgical Corporation of China, for its planned Lido City development..
washingtonpost.com/politics/as-ta…

📌Plans for that project, in a mountainous area of West Java, include a Trump-branded golf course, hotels and villas.
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📌Days later, Trump announced his support for Chinese-backed telecommunications firm ZTE, a departure from his previously aggressive stance toward Chinese industry that prompted Democrats & ethical experts to question whether the two actions were related.
washingtonpost.com/politics/as-ta…

The Trump Org stressed that the Chinese firms are not direct contractors with the Trumps and are working on separate aspects of the developments from the president’s.

📌DAMAC Tom Barrack
washingtonpost.com/politics/as-ta…

Nonetheless, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against Trump for accepting foreign payments, raised the Chinese contract with MNC as an example of deals he said the Constitution requires Congress to approve.
washingtonpost.com/politics/as-ta…

📌Trump told Forbes in 2015 that he “just renewed” the Trump Tower lease for the Chinese bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

📌It expires in October 2019, a timeline that indicates the companies may have begun negotiating an extension.
washingtonpost.com/politics/as-ta…

📌Top ethics official, Apol responded to an inquiry by more than 60 congressional Democrats, saying that their assertions about Chinese support of the Indonesian project “raise serious concerns” — though he said he lacked the authority to investigate.
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June 26 Warner & Rubio, members of the Intelligence Committee, requested Trump to reinstate the ban on ZTE, writing that “the Senate and the U.S. Intelligence Community are in agreement that ZTE poses a significant threat to our national security.”
washingtonpost.com/politics/as-ta…

Meanwhile, the global economy has awaited Trump’s tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods — a measure the Chinese have promised to match, potentially triggering a trade war that could metastasize.

📌Political Theater?
washingtonpost.com/politics/as-ta…

Scott Kennedy of the bipartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies said to expect the US & China to “go over the cliff” Friday & escalate things.

“What we don’t know is if the president has the appetite for a brutal trade war,” he said.

📌🙄?
washingtonpost.com/politics/as-ta…

Trump’s motive in levying the tariffs, was to not be seen as backing down in the face of a trade imbalance that he has made an issue of since his first day on the campaign.

📌He said he hoped the president’s business interests were not a factor.🤷‍♀️
washingtonpost.com/politics/as-ta…

📌“There are certainly deep appearances of conflict of interest, and it would be wise to eliminate those conflicts or constrain them as much as possible,” “It looks bad, but I don’t think that’s really the issue.” Kennedy said. 🤷‍♀️
washingtonpost.com/politics/as-ta…

@threadreaderapp unroll please and thank you.