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As Trump bashed China, he sought deals with its govt
By Ben Dooley
Beijing (AFP) Oct 17, 2016


Mosul offensive provides a pre-election boon for Obama
Washington (AFP) Oct 17, 2016 - The battle for Mosul is a chance for President Barack Obama to claim an election-year victory over the Islamic State group in Iraq and offset failures in Syria.

Ask the White House about the slow motion catastrophe in Syria and, more likely than not, officials will talk about the different -- if related -- problem of the Islamic State group.

With the battle to retake Mosul kicking off Monday, the Obama administration now has something to talk about.

US efforts to stop the Syrian-Russian bombing of civilians in Aleppo have come to nothing, another black mark against Obama's vexed policies in the Middle East.

Libya is in chaos, Egypt is run by the military and Obama's refusal to intervene in Syria's war, which has already killed 300,000 people, will likely have repercussions for generations to come.

But from Aleppo, head 375 miles (600 kilometers) east across the Syrian-Iraqi border and there is better news.

After two years and some 5,634 strikes against the Islamic State group, the jihadists' last major redoubt in Iraq is in the crosshairs of a ground campaign.

Retaking Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, would be a major victory over the Islamic State group in its own right, but it would also help Obama greatly.

- Obama's struggle -

The bitter 2016 US presidential election campaign has taken place against a backdrop of jihadist-inspired attacks from Paris to San Bernardino, California.

Polls show Americans are more concerned about terrorism today than at any time since the aftermath of 9/11.

In a TIME/SurveyMonkey poll of 5,478 voters released this month, 58 percent said terrorism and national security should be among the top three priorities for the next president.

Donald Trump, the Republican who wants the job, has gained electoral traction with a simple -- if functionally questionable -- pledge to "bomb the shit out of ISIS."

He has repeatedly accused Obama and his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton of "founding" the IS group -- of withdrawing US troops from Iraq too quickly and creating a vacuum that allowed the extremists to thrive.

The Islamic State group's rapid retreat from towns like Jarabulus and Raqa is likely to fuel questions about why the jihadists were not confronted with more military strength on the ground sooner.

Meanwhile, Obama has at times struggled to find similar clarity.

He has tried to show the myriad of actions his administration has taken to counter IS -- from diplomacy to special ops -- while at the same time trying not to overstate their strength and importance.

Privately, aides argue the group is far from an existential threat to the United States, and can only be successful if Americans respond by weakening their own values and institutions.

- Ending the endless war -

For much of his eight years in office, the 44th president has also tried and failed to fulfill a campaign promise to draw US troops out of Iraq.

The main obstacle has been the inability of leaders in Baghdad to extend their writ to the whole country -- by force or by politics deft enough to bring together rival sectarian and tribal groups.

The White House will be hoping the Mosul offensive can shore up Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, even as opponents oust key ministerial allies from his cabinet.

In the run-up to the long-anticipated Mosul operation, the White House has put the onus firmly on Abadi, refusing to even confirm the offensive until the Iraqi prime minister had done so.

The clear message from Washington has been that -- despite the pivotal role of US intelligence, air support and strategic guidance -- Abadi is in charge.

Even as US presidential candidate Donald Trump aggressively condemned Beijing, his hotel firm pursued a lucrative business deal with a giant state-owned Chinese firm headed by a top Communist official, sources say.

Trump has long declared Beijing to be America's "enemy", but his Trump Hotel Collection (THC) negotiated with the State Grid Corporation of China -- an electricity company that is the country's largest state-owned enterprise -- to brand and manage a major development in the capital, according to sources with direct knowledge of the talks.

The process resulted in a memorandum of understanding for a deal potentially worth between $100 million and $150 million over 15 years, Robby Qiu, the former director of Trump's Greater China office told AFP.

The discussions were confirmed by a source who asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive business information.

Trump has repeatedly been accused of double standards during the election campaign, and questions have been raised about possible conflicts of interest due to his overseas deals.

China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are a key element of the Communist party's control over the world's second-largest economy, and seen as important tools for pursuing its policy and geopolitical objectives.

Unlike private firms, their top executives are directly appointed by the ruling party, and often hold senior party positions.

During his White House bid, Trump has frequently excoriated China, claiming it has stolen millions of American jobs through distorted trade policies and currency manipulation.

In his 2011 book "Time to Get Tough" -- released as he pondered a presidential campaign -- he called China's leaders "our enemy".

"What else do you call the people who are destroying your children and grandchildren's future... who are ruining our way of life?" he wrote.

"We shouldn't entertain Communists and beg for a few tiny contracts."

The negotiations with State Grid -- whose then chairman Liu Zhenya had been an alternate member of the Communist Party's Central Committee -- began a little over two years later.

Derek Scissors, an expert on US-China business relations at the American Enterprise Institute, told AFP: "It does make him look considerably worse, in my view, to be working with branches of the Chinese state after so sharply criticising the policies of the Chinese state."

State Grid is listed as the world's second largest company by revenues in the Forbes Global 500 and provides electricity around 1.1 billion people across China.

Earlier this year Australia rejected a bid by it to purchase a regional electricity utility over concerns the deal would be "contrary to the national interest".

Several attempts by Chinese SOEs to invest in US firms and infrastructure have previously been blocked by Washington on security grounds.

- 'A great future in China' -

THC, since renamed Trump Hotels, manages Trump's portfolio of luxury accommodations and has struck licensing and management deals for Trump-branded hotels, residences and golf courses in countries from Panama to Azerbaijan and Indonesia.

Trump has said he has 121 projects abroad, telling Vanity Fair they include "numerous deals" in China.

His companies' current activities in the Asian country remain unclear.

Negotiations with other SOEs and at least one Chinese city government continued at least through the opening months of Trump's presidential campaign, according to Qiu, who moved to a different employer late last year.

In July 2015, a month after Trump declared his candidacy, the company's office in Shanghai began recruiting for two employees with experience working with "large state-owned corporations", according to a job posting seen by AFP.

Last October THC chief executive Eric Danziger told the state-owned China Daily newspaper that it was "actively" pursuing deals in major Chinese metropolises including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Trump has sought business in China since at least 2006, when documents filed with the Chinese government show he began trademarking his name in Hong Kong and on the mainland.

In 2008 he agreed with Chinese property developer Evergrande and Hong Kong-based Orient Property Group to try to build a development in Guangzhou, according to filings to the Hong Kong stock exchange. But nothing ever came of the collaboration.

The Trump family renewed its push into the country in 2012 -- just months after his book came out. In Hong Kong, his daughter Ivanka told the Wall Street Journal: "China is going to be one of our primary focuses going forward. There's such interest in the brand being here."

Months later, THC opened its Shanghai office, its sole outpost in Asia.

- Relative unknown -

Trump businesses already had longstanding relationships with Chinese SOEs in the US: New York's Trump Tower houses the American headquarters of ICBC, the country's biggest bank.

But Trump himself had a low profile on the mainland, despite his outsize personality.

"Very few people knew him," Qiu said. "There was a lot of difficulty when we tried to sell his name, and tried to sell his brand as a hotel brand."

Details of the State Grid discussions described to AFP suggest they focused on a 7 billion yuan (now $1 billion) development that State Grid and its subsidiary Luneng Energy were building in Beijing's prime Guomao neighbourhood.

State Grid executives flew to New York for several rounds of talks and Trump and his family were "excited" about the deal, sources said.

But negotiations were put on hold after Chinese authorities opened a corruption investigation into State Grid, with China's National Audit Office saying it illegally used public land for the Guomao project. There is no suggestion Trump or his companies were implicated in the Chinese inquiry.

"We're not currently in talks with State Grid," a Trump Hotels spokeswoman told AFP.

She added: "We remain interested in key cities in Asia, including those in China, and will continue to explore such opportunities accordingly."

Neither State Grid, nor the Trump campaign responded to requests for comment by AFP.

dly/slb/hg

ICBC


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