Although U.S. President Trump is working to ease Sino-U.S. economic and trade tensions, his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., stated bluntly on the 4th during an investment forum in Zurich, Switzerland, that he would not consider investing in China.
According to Bloomberg, when asked at the event whether he had any intention of entering the Chinese market, Trump Jr. responded: “I will not. I don’t think we can pretend China is an ally, that would be foolish.”
Trump Jr., who serves as executive vice president of the Trump Organization along with his younger brother Eric, has been actively expanding the company’s commercial and development footprint abroad since his father returned to the White House. He admitted to attending investors that he has deep concerns about China’s judicial system and directly pointed out that the system is very unfriendly to foreign businesses.
He said: “I can’t think of any non-Chinese company that has ever won a lawsuit when doing business in China.”
Trump Jr. made these remarks at a time when the U.S. Trade Representative’s office had just launched a public consultation process to implement the ‘Trade Committee’ concept proposed during last month’s meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
U.S. officials revealed that both sides are seeking to identify lists of approximately $30 billion worth of goods each, to ensure that relevant trade does not involve national security risks, and to use this as a basis to reduce tariffs on some goods.