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Shanghaiist 2018-05-31

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Ivanka Trump’s business interests in China are raising eyebrows yet again after her company was granted some hard-to-come-by trademark approvals only a few days before her father made the peculiar decision to vow to save Chinese phone-maker ZTE from ruin.


Over the past three months, China has approved 13 Ivanka Trump trademarks, the Associated Press has found, noting that an additional eight trademarks have also been granted provisional approval. According to experts, China’s trademark approval process is working with unusual speed for Ivanka.


The fact that five of these trademarks were granted approval just days before US President Donald Trump tweeted out his promise to protect Chinese manufacturing jobs and rescue ZTE from collapse has led to yet more questions regarding whether the Trump family is trying to directly profit from the presidency.



ZTE, one of China’s largest phone-makers, found itself in serious trouble after being hit with a crippling ban from the US Commerce Department which forbade American companies from selling to ZTE for the next seven years. The ban was put in place after ZTE was found to have broken an agreement reached last year with the US after it was caught illegally shipping millions of dollars of American hardware and software to Iran and North Korea, violating sanctions.


Oddly enough, Trump has decided to go against his own commerce department, along with US intelligence agencies, lawmakers from both parties, and his own “America First” persona, to try to work out a deal to save ZTE, purportedly as a way of forging a better deal on trade with China.


Of course, Trump and his family have so many potential conflicts of interest that it’s hard to know which may perhaps have influenced his stance on ZTE. Just a few days before his tweet, China agreed to fund an Indonesian theme park project with $500 million in loans. The theme park is part of a larger real estate project which will also feature Trump-branded hotels, residences, and a golf course.


Meanwhile, this isn’t the first time that Ivanka Trump has received some curiously-timed trademark approvals. Last year, on the same day that she sat down to enjoy a meal in Mar-a-Lago with a Chinese delegation, her company was granted provisional approval for three new trademarks in China.


Ivanka’s daughter recites a Chinese poem for Xi Jinping and his wife.


Ivanka stepped back from the management of her brand last March to assume a post in her father’s White House. Her company last applied for trademarks in China — 17 of them — on the day before she formally became part of the Trump administration. While she may no longer formally oversee her brand’s operations, she still profits from her company, having placed the assets in a family-run trust.


Though the Ivanka Trump brand doesn’t actually have much of a retail presence in China, the presidential daughter is reportedly quite popular in the country and the trademarks — which include everything from perfume to coffins — could prove quite lucrative someday… okay, maybe not the coffins.


Ivanka and her daughter visited the Chinese embassy for Lunar New Year festivities last year.


While Ivanka Trump products may not be sold much in China, many of her products are made there. Last year, three activists who were working undercover to expose conditions at a factory making shoes for Ivanka Trump and other international brands were arrested for alleged use of illegal surveillance equipment. They were released after being detained for one month, though are reportedly still kept under police surveillance.


On May 25th, the White House told Congress that it had reached a deal on easing sanctions with ZTE. More than 60 Democratic lawmakers have responded by demanding an ethics investigation into Trump’s advocacy for the company.



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