With Sino-U.S. trade talks scheduled to resume next week, President Trump said on Thursday that “China should start an investigation into the Bidens” — former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Trump also said his administration was “looking at a lot of different things” to increase pressure on China to resolve the trade war.
“China is coming in next week. We’re going to have a meeting,” said Trump to reporters, who asked if the administration wanted to restrict U.S. investment in China or delist Chinese stocks from U.S. exchanges. “I have a lot of options with China. But if they don’t do what we want, we have tremendous — tremendous power.”
The government has paid billions of dollars in cash to U.S. farmers and ranchers — $8.6 billion for 2018 crops and livestock and $5.2 billion so far this year — to mitigate the impact of the trade war on the agricultural sector. China used to be the No. 1 customer for U.S. farm exports but has tumbled to fifth place. Alternative markets for U.S. agricultural exports have been slow to develop. China returned to the U.S. market for soybeans in the past few weeks.
Trump reiterated today that Ukraine should investigate the Bidens, then added, “And by the way, China should start an investigation into the Bidens.” House Democrats announced an impeachment inquiry of Trump for possible abuse of power over a request to Ukraine, made during a July 25 telephone call, that seemed to demand that the country provide material to smear his political rival.
It wasn’t the first time that Trump has brought Biden into U.S.-China relations, reported CNN. “During a phone call with Xi on June 18, Trump raised Biden’s political prospects as well as those of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who by then had started rising in the polls, according to two people familiar with the discussion. In that call, Trump also told Xi he would remain quiet on Hong Kong protests as trade talks progressed.”