US President Donald Trump said Thursday that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) should consider investigating Joe Biden and his son after again calling on Ukraine’s president to re-open an investigation into one of his top political rivals.
“China should start an investigation into the Bidens, because what happened in China was just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine,” Trump told reporters on Thursday as he left the White House.
Trump’s remarks came after he reiterated his call for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to start an investigation of the Bidens.
Trump’s allegation that Joe Biden, as vice president, tried to shield his son Hunter from a Ukrainian investigation of a company that employed him, has been discredited.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment yesterday.
The US House of Representatives has begun an inquiry into impeaching Trump over his conduct in a July 25 telephone call with Zelenskiy.
After freezing military aid to Ukraine, which is battling a Russia-backed insurgency, Trump asked Zelenskiy to investigate Biden, and encouraged him to work on the matter with his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and US Attorney General William Barr.
“I would say that President Zelenskiy, if it were me, I would recommend that they start an investigation into the Bidens, because nobody has any doubts that they weren’t crooked,” Trump said on Thursday.
Biden’s campaign dismissed Trump’s remarks as without merit.
“Donald Trump is flailing and melting down on national television, desperately clutching for conspiracy theories that have been debunked and dismissed by independent, credible news organizations,” Biden’s deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, said in a statement. “It could not be more transparent: Donald Trump is terrified that Joe Biden will beat him like a drum.”
Also on Thursday, Federal Election Commission Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub, a Democrat, retweeted a statement she originally made in June about electoral intervention from foreign governments.
“Let me make something 100% clear to the American public and anyone running for public office: It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a US election,” she said.
On China, Trump suggested that the Bidens might be the reason Beijing “has such a sweetheart deal, that for so many years they’ve been ripping off our country.”
Trump did not elaborate, but often says China is “ripping off” the US. in trade — the predicate for his ongoing trade dispute with Beijing.
Speaking to the media in September, Trump alluded to his suspicions about Biden and China: “When Biden’s son walks out of China with US$1.5 billion in a fund, and the biggest funds in the world can’t get money out of China, and he’s there for one quick meeting and he flies in on Air Force Two, I think that’s a horrible thing,” he said.
Implicit in Trump’s statements is that Joe Biden used his position to encourage Chinese officials to benefit his son’s business dealings involving a private-equity venture in the country.
Not only has no evidence emerged of the vice president’s intervention, but it is unclear whether Hunter Biden derived any financial benefit from the venture in the first place.
Meanwhile, China experts say Beijing stands to gain little by helping Trump undermine a political opponent.
Beijing has a long-standing public policy of not interfering in foreign countries’ politics.
Beijing does “not want to be involved or seen involved in the US presidential elections,” said Jeffrey Bader, a former special assistant for national security to then-US president Barack Obama for and a top Asia adviser.
Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said this repeatedly at events around the UN General Assembly last week.
“China will never interfere in the internal affairs of the United States, and we trust that the American people are capable of sorting out their own problems,” he said.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
KAOHSIUNG CEREMONY: The contract chipmaker is planning to build 5 fabs in the southern city to gradually expand its 2-nanometer chip capacity Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday confirmed that it plans to hold a ceremony on March 31 to unveil a capacity expansion plan for its most advanced 2-nanometer chips in Kaohsiung, demonstrating its commitment to further investment at home. The ceremony is to be hosted by TSMC cochief operating officer Y.P. Chyn (秦永沛). It did not disclose whether Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and high-ranking government officials would attend the ceremony. More details are to be released next week, it said. The chipmaker’s latest move came after its announcement earlier this month of an additional US$100 billion
RSS