Donald Trump Reportedly Paid Nearly $200K In Taxes To China, Has Secret Chinese Bank Account
Donald Trump maintains a secret bank account in China where he pursued business deals for years, according to a bombshell report that could undermine the president’s election campaign claim that he is tough on Beijing.
Tax records reviewed by The New York Times purportedly showed a previously unreported bank account controlled by Trump International Hotels Management. The account paid $188,561 in taxes in China between 2013 and 2015 in connection to potential licensing deals, according to the newspaper.
An earlier investigation by the Times caused outrage when it was revealed that the president had paid just $750 in U.S. taxes in 2016 and 2017, as The Inquisitr reported in September.
The recent tax records also reportedly showed Trump invested at least $192,000 in five companies that were pursuing business connections in China. Those companies claimed $97,400 in expenses and received payments as recently as 2018.
This would not be the first example of Trump’s financial pursuits in China receiving attention. As cited by ABS-CBN, AFP reported in 2016 that the Trump Hotel Collection negotiated with electricity company State Grid Corporation of China to brand and manage a major development in Beijing, resulting in a deal that would be worth up to $150 million. Talks were halted after the state-owned corporation became the focus of a corruption investigation.
Trump may have also previously pursued an office tower project in Guangzhou that did not come to fruition.
One of the key arguments made by Trump’s re-election campaign has been his ability to stand up to China on issues such as human rights abuses in Xinjiang and political repression in Hong Kong, as well as trade.
He has also repeatedly blamed the nation for the spread of COVID-19 and has referred to the disease as both “the Chinese virus” and “kung flu” despite being warned about how those racially charged names could impact Chinese Americans, per NBC. Over the course of Trump’s time in office, diplomacy between China and the U.S. has reached its lowest point in decades.
These revelations also come after Trump described his Democratic opponent Joe Biden as “weak on China” and accused the Biden family of “selling out our country” to Beijing through shady dealings. The Republican’s campaign has run attack ads against Biden’s son Hunter for engaging in corruption with the government-owned Bank of China, allegations that have been not been verified by any other sources.
Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, 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.”
“No deals, transactions or other business activities ever materialized and, since 2015, the office has remained inactive,” he said.
