WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump openly called on China as well as Ukraine to investigate his potential 2020 election rival Joe Biden, taunting Democrats seeking his impeachment for inviting foreign election interference.
Speaking in Florida Thursday, Trump blasted his accusers as “maniacs” pursuing “impeachment crap” as he sought to turn the tables on a probe that threatens to make him only the third US president ever impeached in the House of Representatives, and face a trial in the Senate.
As a former State Department diplomat testified behind closed doors in Congress on his role in the Ukraine scandal, Trump doubled down by calling for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to go after Biden, who leads the race for the Democratic presidential nomination next year.
“I would say that President Zelensky, if it were me, I would recommend that they start an investigation into the Bidens,” Trump told reporters outside the White House.
“Likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens, because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine.”
Asked if he would request Xi do the same, Trump replied, “It’s certainly something we can start thinking about.”
Adam Schiff, the Democrat leading the impeachment probe in the House of Representatives, said Trump was acting “with impunity” in the face of the law.
“Once again we have a president of the United States suggesting, urging a foreign country to interfere in our presidential elections,” Schiff said.
Trump alleges that Biden, as vice president in 2014, tried to block a Ukraine corruption probe into his son Hunter’s business partner, a Ukraine gas tycoon, using US aid as leverage.
He also alleged Hunter used his stature to raise $1.5 billion in 2013 from China for a new investment vehicle in Beijing.
He made “millions” off these investments, Trump alleges.
The record in Ukraine however shows that there was no corruption probe of Hunter Biden’s partner to be blocked, and that the United States and allies all viewed Kiev’s since-removed corruption prosecutor at the time as himself deeply compromised.
In China, according to multiple media reports, a business associate of Hunter Biden obtained an investment license that did not include Biden’s name, and only raised several million dollars.
Hunter Biden put up $420,000 for a minority interest, and has not received any compensation or return on it, his lawyer told the Washington Post.
Joe Biden’s campaign called Trump’s comments already-debunked “conspiracy theories” and accused him of “a grotesque choice of lies over truth and self over the country.”
“Mr. President, you cannot extort foreign governments to help you win re-election. It’s an abuse of power. It violates your oath of office. And it jeopardizes our national security,” Biden tweeted separately.
In Congress, former US special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker was interviewed by House lawyers for more than eight hours on his role in the efforts by Trump and the president’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
Text messages released by House Democrats afterward showed Volker telling top Zelensky aide Andrey Yermak that the Ukrainian president should open an investigation sought by Trump in return for a visit to Washington.
“We have ample evidence now that there was a requirement that President Zelensky investigate the 2016 election, and the Bidens, if he wanted to get a meeting,” with Trump, said Democrat Eric Swalwell.
Meanwhile, Republicans who sat in on the interview said Volker did not support charges that Trump withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid from Ukraine to force Zelensky to open an investigation, as was alleged in a whistleblower complaint made public last week.
“It is crystal clear... that any allegation that President Trump was trying to get President Zelensky to manufacture dirt on the Bidens is just not true,” said Representative Lee Zeldin, before Volker’s testimony ended.
Democrats vowed to push through with the impeachment investigation, having subpoenaed documents from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Giuliani, and threatened to subpoena the White House.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected a Republican call to halt the investigation on the grounds that a full House resolution on an impeachment inquiry had not been voted on.
“There is no requirement under the Constitution, under House Rules, or House precedent that the whole House vote before proceeding with an impeachment inquiry,” she said.
Trump openly calls on Ukraine, China to investigate Biden
Trump openly calls on Ukraine, China to investigate Biden
- Trump called his accusers as “maniacs” pursuing “impeachment crap”
- The probe threatens to make him the third impeached US president
Britain’s Starmer seeks to bolster China ties despite Trump warning
- “The UK has got a huge amount to offer,” he said in a short speech at the UK-China Business Forum at the Bank of China
SHANGHAI: Visiting Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Friday Britain has a “huge amount to offer” China, after his bid to forge closer ties prompted warnings from US President Donald Trump.
Starmer’s trip is the first to China by a British prime minister in eight years, and follows in the footsteps of other Western leaders looking to counter an increasingly volatile United States.
Leaders from France, Canada and Finland have flocked to Beijing in recent weeks, recoiling from Trump’s bid to seize Greenland and tariff threats against NATO allies.
Trump warned on Thursday it was “very dangerous” for Britain to be dealing with China.
Starmer brushed off those comments on Friday, noting that Trump was also expected to visit China in the months ahead.
“The US and the UK are very close allies, and that’s why we discussed the visit with his team before we came,” Starmer said in an interview with UK television.
“I don’t think it is wise for the UK to stick its head in the sand. China is the second-largest economy in the world,” he said.
Asked about Trump’s comments on Friday, Beijing’s foreign ministry said “China is willing to strengthen cooperation with all countries in the spirit of mutual benefit and win-win results.”
Starmer met top Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang, on Thursday, with both sides highlighting the need for closer ties.
He told business representatives from Britain and China on Friday that both sides had “warmly engaged” and “made some real progress.”
“The UK has got a huge amount to offer,” he said in a short speech at the UK-China Business Forum at the Bank of China.
The meetings the previous day provided “just the level of engagement that we hoped for,” Starmer said.
He signed a series of agreements on Thursday, with Downing Street announcing Beijing had agreed to visa-free travel for British citizens visiting China for under 30 days, although Starmer acknowledged there was no start date for the arrangement yet.
The Chinese foreign ministry said only that it was “actively considering” the visa deal and would “make it public at an appropriate time upon completing the necessary procedures.”
Starmer hailed the agreements as “symbolic of what we’re doing with the relationship.”
He also said Beijing had lifted sanctions on UK lawmakers targeted since 2021 for their criticism of alleged human rights abuses against China’s Muslim Uyghur minority.
“President Xi said to me that that means all parliamentarians are welcome,” Starmer said in an interview with UK television.
He traveled from Beijing to economic powerhouse Shanghai, where he spoke with Chinese students at the Shanghai International College of Fashion and Innovation, a joint institute between Donghua University and the University of Edinburgh.
- Visas and whisky -
The visa deal could bring Britain in line with about 50 other countries granted visa-free travel, including France, Germany, Australia and Japan, and follows a similar agreement made between China and Canada this month.
The agreements signed included cooperation on targeting supply chains used by migrant smugglers, as well as on British exports to China, health and strengthening a bilateral trade commission.
China also agreed to halve tariffs on British whisky to five percent, according to Downing Street.
British companies sealed £2.2 billion in export deals and around £2.3 billion in “market access wins” over five years, and “hundreds of millions worth of investments,” Starmer’s government said in a statement.
Xi told Starmer on Thursday that their countries should strengthen dialogue and cooperation in the context of a “complex and intertwined” international situation.
Relations between China and the UK deteriorated from 2020 when Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong and cracked down on pro-democracy activists in the former British colony.
However, China remains Britain’s third-largest trading partner, and Starmer is hoping deals with Beijing will help fulfil his primary goal of boosting UK economic growth.
British pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca said on Thursday it would invest $15 billion in China through 2030 to expand its medicines manufacturing and research.
And China’s Pop Mart, makers of the wildly popular Labubu dolls, said it would set up a regional hub in London and open 27 stores across Europe in the coming year, including up to seven in Britain.
Starmer will continue his Asia trip with a brief stop in Japan on Saturday to meet Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
