Like a lot of folks, I was puzzled as to why Donald “America First” Trump had begun advocating for the Commerce Department to intervene on behalf of a Chinese telecom company – especially one that stands accused of espionage by members of our intelligence community – demanding that we act fast in order to save tens of thousands of jobs in China.
OK, before I go on, here are two quick responses to this edict from Trump.
1. “It’s striking that (Trump) is overruling the judgment of his own national security apparatus in order to help a Chinese company succeed.” -Abraham Denmark, the director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
2. “I am speechless. I’m highly confident that a [US] president has never intervened in a law-enforcement matter like this before.” -Kevin Wolf, the assistant secretary of commerce in the Obama administration who oversaw the launch of the ZTE case
Having read a bit about the situation in Fortune earlier this evening, it struck me that this could have less to do with the loss of Chinese manufacturing jobs, and more to with the fact that enormous American electronics companies that supply components to ZTE, like Qualcomm and Intel, are getting hit hard by the federal restrictions levied against the Chinese company… but then I read this headline from this past Friday’s South China Morning Post.
And now I think this probably has more to do with keeping the Trump Organization afloat than Chinese factory workers employed.
Here, for those of you who don’t subscribe to the South China Morning Post, is an excerpt from the article.
A subsidiary of Chinese state-owned construction firm Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC) signed a deal with Indonesia’s MNC Land to build a theme park outside Jakarta as part of the ambitious project, the company said on Thursday.
The deal is the latest to raise questions about the extent of Trump’s financial exposure to Beijing.
The park – expected to be backed with up to US$500 million in Chinese government loans – is part of an “integrated lifestyle resort”, known as MNC Lido City.
The project includes Trump-branded hotels, residences and a golf course, as well as other hotel, shopping and residential developments…
So, yes, it looks as though it was announced on Friday that Trump’s Indonesia project would be financed by way of $500 million in Chinese government loans, and, three days later, our president took to Twitter to demand that our Commerce Department disregard the warnings of our intelligence community and the fact that ZTE had violated U.S. sanctions against both Iran and North Korea, and get the company up and running at full capacity again… Sounds totally legit, right?
