![]() Sarah Chayes: Hunter Biden’s perfectly legal, socially acceptable corruption And crucially, he’s doing so without ever actually lodging any accusation of criminal behavior. He’s asking it to open its own investigation, which would hurt a political opponent. Trump isn’t requesting that China (or Ukraine) assist an existing FBI investigation. government does sometimes ask foreign governments for assistance in criminal investigations. Yet, by inviting an investigation into the Bidens, Trump implies that he’s extending a free pass, as he did with Russia three years ago. Trump has been clear-eyed about the scale and cost of Chinese espionage against American companies. Just as Russia is a major intelligence adversary of the United States, China is already engaged in a massive spying operation against the U.S. By contrast, one of the most unusual things about his attempt to strong-arm Ukraine into investigating the Bidens was the White House’s attempt to cover it up.Trump’s remarks today marked a return to form. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” he said. During the 2016 election, he infamously called on Russia to attempt to hack into Hillary Clinton’s computers. This is not the first time Trump has openly requested that a foreign government intervene. “I have a lot of options on China, but if they don’t do what we want, we have tremendous power,” Trump said a half minute before making the investigation request. Talks between the two governments have stalled. Beijing is embroiled in a trade war with the United States that has throttled the Chinese economy. (He did, however, raise eyebrows with a tweet this week celebrating the advent of Communist China.)īut just as Trump offered a quid pro quo to Zelensky, China has something to gain by currying favor with Trump. ![]() Unlike Ukraine, which is largely a client state of Western governments, China has been repeatedly described by Trump as an important rival and even an adversary. The suggestion is even more shocking because of the country involved. ![]() Unprompted, Trump requested that another foreign power inject itself into the election by investigating a political opponent. They should investigate the Bidens because how does a company that’s newly formed-and all these companies-and by the way, likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine. ![]()
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