The Chinese government and state-controlled authorities spent more than $5.5 million on assets owned by Donald Trump during his presidency, the largest total payments made by any individual foreign country to date, according to financial documents cited in a report from the House of Democrats released Thursday.
The payments collectively included millions of dollars from the Chinese embassy in the United States, a Chinese state-owned bank accused by the U.S. Justice Department of helping North Korea evade sanctions and a state-owned Chinese air transportation company. Accounting records from Trump's former accounting firm, Mazars USA, were obtained by Democrats in the House Oversight Committee.
In the report, House Democrats say China is one of 20 countries that made at least $7.8 million in payments to Trump-owned businesses and assets during the former president's tenure in the White House, including his hotels in Washington, D.C., New York and Las Vegas.
The documents offer further evidence of the rare practice of foreign governments spending money directly with businesses owned by a sitting president, but are not a complete record of all foreign payments made to Trump's businesses during his time in the White House.
At the time, Trump's lawyer said the former president planned to donate foreign profits from his hotels to the U.S. Treasury Department. However, the amount donated by the Trump Organization in 2017 and 2018 falls far short of the estimated foreign payments made to its assets.
Trump refused to sell corporate and asset assets before taking office, meaning he can still profit from his various businesses with little transparency.
Democrats say the additional accounting records raise new questions about possible efforts to influence Trump through his companies while he was in the White House.
As an example, Democrats on the committee point to the fact that Trump refused to impose sanctions on the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), a state-owned entity that leased property in Trump Tower in New York.
A 2012 SEC filing shows that the Chinese bank's basic rent paid was $1.9 million and documents produced by Mazars confirm that the bank remained in Trump Tower until at least 2019.
In 2016, the Justice Department accused the bank of conspiring with a North Korean bank to evade U.S. sanctions.
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