Donald Trump spent years cultivating business projects in China, where he maintained a previously unknown bank account, The New York Times reported Tuesday, as the US president attempts to portray election rival Joe Biden as weaker on Beijing.

Trump has spent recent days promoting a murky claim that Biden's son Hunter sold access to his father in Ukraine and China when he was vice president under Barack Obama.

It is Trump, however, who maintained an office in China during his first run for president, and partnered with a major government-controlled company, the Times reported.

Trump additionally keeps a previously unknown bank account in China, controlled by Trump International Hotels Management, according to an analysis of his tax records by the paper. It is one of only three foreign nations — including Britain and Ireland — in which he does so.

The tax records show the company "paid $188,561 in taxes in China while pursuing licensing deals there from 2013 to 2015," the Times reported.

Trump Organization lawyer Alan Garten said 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 told The Times. "Though the bank account remains open, it has never been used for any other purpose."

Under his "America First" banner, Trump has portrayed China as the greatest threat to the United States and global democracy.

He has launched a massive trade war that has cost China billions of dollars, harangued Chinese tech firms and laid blame for the coronavirus pandemic with Beijing.

Even so, in 2008 Trump attempted an ultimately unsuccessful office tower project in Guangzhou, and in 2012 he opened a Shanghai office, the Times said.

Additionally, Trump Hotel Collection (THC) negotiated with the State Grid Corporation of China — an electricity company, and the country's largest state-owned enterprise — to brand and manage a major development in Beijing, sources told AFP. But the bid was later abandoned.

Biden's income tax returns and financial dealings meanwhile show no business connection to China.

Ex-Trump fundraiser pleads guilty to illicit lobbying on 1MDB, China
Washington (AFP) Oct 22, 2020 –

A former top fundraiser for President Donald Trump pleaded guilty Tuesday to illegally lobbying the US government to drop its probe into the Malaysia 1MDB corruption scandal and to deport an exiled Chinese billionaire.

Elliott Broidy, 63, was charged in early October with one count of conspiracy to act as an unregistered foreign agent after allegedly agreeing to take millions of dollars to lobby the Trump administration.

At the time Broidy was national deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, after having been a major fundraiser for Trump's successful 2016 presidential campaign.

The indictment said Broidy was recruited in 2017 by an unnamed foreign national, understood to be Malaysian Low Taek Jho, to pressure US officials to end their investigation of a scandal engulfing then Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak.

The scandal involved the theft of over $4.5 billion from state investment fund 1MDB, and Low was allegedly central to moving and hiding some of the stolen funds.

The lobbying included trying to arrange for Razak and Trump to play golf together in September 2017, to give the Malaysia leader a chance to pressure Trump do end the US probe.

The golf game never happened, and Low was indicted in 2018 for his alleged role in siphoning off billions from 1MDB.

Low, who has also been charged in Malaysia over the scandal, has consistently denied any wrongdoing. His current whereabouts are unknown.

In addition, in May 2017 Low introduced Broidy to a senior Chinese security official, and they discussed Beijing's desire that Washington deport an exiled Chinese tycoon, known to be Guo Wengui, a prominent dissident businessman.

The indictment describes Broidy's intense lobbying of the White House, the Justice Department and law enforcement on behalf of the Chinese, including contacts with but not direct discussions with Trump.

"This case demonstrates how foreign governments and principals seek to advance their agendas in the United States by hiding behind politically influential proxies," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian Rabbitt in a statement.

"Such conduct poses a serious threat to our national security and undermines the integrity of our democracy."

Broidy faces a maximum of five years in prison, and is forfeiting $6.6 million he earned from Low for the lobbying, the Justice department said.