Donald Trump embraces Donald Trump Jr as Lara Trump, Eric Trump and Tiffany Trump look on at his campaign rally, at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., November 4, 2024. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
When it comes to non-Americans, Trump and his regime are clear: Foreigners — especially if they’re Chinese — are no longer wanted here. Nor are their products. Nor are we prepared to sell them our advanced technologies.
But foreign bribes? Hell, they’re welcome at the highest levels, even if they result in some critical technologies reaching China.
First, consider all the front doors now closing to China.
The State Department is revoking the visas of Chinese students who are “studying in critical fields.” This could be a big deal. Some 277,000 students from China attended school in the United States last year, second only to the number of students from India.
In addition to raising tariffs on Chinese products entering the United States, Trump is considering prohibiting major Chinese chipmakers — as well as units of Chinese technology giants like Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu — from trading with the United States.
Meanwhile, the United States has ordered a broad swath of American companies to stop shipping high-tech goods to China without a license and revoked licenses already granted to certain suppliers.
Last week, the United States suspended some sales to China of components and software used in jet engines and semiconductors, including chemicals and electronic design automation software for semiconductors.
In late March, the Trump administration added 80 companies and organizations to a list of companies that are barred from buying American technology and other exports because of national security concerns. The move, which targets primarily Chinese firms, cracks down on companies that have been big buyers of American chips from Nvidia, Intel, and AMD.
The rules are aimed at restricting China’s access to artificial intelligence and advanced computing needed to augment its military.
But as these front doors to China close, back doors are opening.
A technology trail now leads from the United States to oil-producing nations and then to China.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates have been granting Trump personal favors. Their presumed goal is to get access to American technology.
Qatar has given Trump a luxury jet, a “palace in the sky.” (It’s to him personally. No subsequent president will be able to use it.)
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has invested $2 billion in Jared Kushner’s private equity firm. And Dar Global, a Saudi luxury developer, is partnering with the Trump Organization on at least three projects across the Middle East, including a Trump Tower Jeddah, another in Riyadh, and a Trump International Hotel and luxury golf development in Oman.
Trump’s family crypto firm, World Liberty Financial, recently announced that its so-called “stablecoin” — with Trump’s likeness all over it — will be used by the United Arab Emirates to make a $2 billion business deal with Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world. The deal will generate hundreds of millions of dollars more for the Trump family.
What do Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE get from all these deals? All are seeking to diversify their economies away from oil by boosting their technology sectors.
Trump is granting them greater access to advanced technologies from the United States, including advanced semiconductors from companies like Nvidia and AMD.
Yet at the same time, these nations are strengthening their strategic partnerships with China in artificial intelligence, advanced computing, and quantum information technology.
They’ve entered into joint ventures with Chinese counterparts for producing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and AI-related projects, including the development of smart cities and AI-powered infrastructure.
Here’s another back door to China: Chinese crypto billionaire Justin Sun, who’s based in Hong Kong.
Sun is the largest holder of Trump’s $TRUMP memecoin. His $23-million investment has put him into the exclusive circle of investors who were invited to a private VIP dinner with Trump on May 22.
Until Trump’s election win, the 34-year-old entrepreneur was in the sights of U.S. authorities and persona non grata in much of the U.S. crypto industry. His company. Tron, which operates a blockchain network with the same name, has been a popular channel for crypto’s criminal fraternity to move funds.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network wrote in a private 2023 report that Tron was “growing in popularity among illicit actors.” By last year, more than half of all illegal crypto activity — some $26 billion — took place on the network.
Sun faced charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which in 2023 accused him of fraudulently manipulating the market for Tron’s TRX token. The Justice Department had been investigating Sun for suspected financial crimes, people familiar with the case said. The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan requested information from Sun in 2021 and continued gathering evidence through at least 2023, some of the people said, causing him to avoid travel to the U.S. over concerns about a possible arrest warrant.
But now? The SEC asked a court in February to pause its lawsuit, and most of the other investigations are on the way to being closed.
Is it possible that Sun’s Tron network will become a means for China to move funds in pursuit of advanced technology from the United States? Of course.
While America’s front doors are closing to China, back doors are opening in the form of personal payoffs to Trump that result in alternative routes for America’s advanced technology to reach China.
Officially, Trump is closing America’s front doors so China doesn’t get our critical technologies. Unofficially, he’s opening back doors to China that give it access to these technologies and make him and his family even richer.
What’s being sold? Who’s being sold out?
Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/."
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