Texas Democratic Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett has been making waves with speeches in which she sharply criticized former President Donald Trump’s ties to the Chinese government.
Crockett made the remarks on Wednesday at a hearing by the Republican-led House Oversight Committee on “Protecting America from China’s Communist Party’s Political Warfare,” after Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina claimed that President Joe Biden has been “bought and bribed by China.”
“At the Oversight Committee today, my colleague from South Carolina was a bit confused about which of the last two presidents has praised China’s authoritarian leader at every opportunity. Hint: it’s the orange one,” Crockett wrote, sharing a video of the hearing on X (formerly Twitter).
Trump spokesman Stephen Chang, in an email, called Crockett a “China-loving puppet of the Chinese Communist Party.” Newsweek Wednesday night.
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In the video, Crockett recites a series of statements Trump has made praising Chinese President Xi Jinping, both during his time in the White House and beyond, while a person standing behind him holds a poster listing Trump’s comments and relevant dates.
“These are what Trump said about Xi Jinping: ‘Smart, intelligent, everything perfect’ … ‘We love each other’ … ‘Chairman Xi Jinping is my friend and a very good man’ … ‘There’s no one like him – looks, brains, everything’ … ‘My feelings for you are incredibly warm,'” Crockett said in the video, repeating Trump’s comments.
“In my opinion, this person does not seem to be willing to take a tough stance on China,” she continued.
Before Crockett read Trump’s remarks, Mace read out several positive comments Biden had made about Xi Jinping, whom the current president also called “intelligent.”
Later in the hearing, Crockett argued that Trump lifted sanctions on the state-owned Chinese telecommunications equipment company ZTE during his presidency to benefit himself and his daughter Ivanka Trump, who served as a senior adviser during his administration.
“President Trump has received more than $5.5 million from the Chinese government,” Crockett said in hearing footage shared by Oversight Committee Democrats on X. “President Trump and his daughter Ivanka, who is a senior White House adviser, have received hundreds of trademark licenses from the Chinese government.”
Crockett also provided a timeline of some of Trump’s trademarks that China approved before sanctions against ZTE were lifted in 2018.
“In May 2018, China approved Ivanka’s trademark. On May 7, 2018, China approved five more trademarks,” Crockett says. “On May 13, 2018, President Trump tweeted that he had instructed the Commerce Department to reverse the sanctions decision against ZTE.”
“[On] “On June 7, 2018, Ivanka’s company received three additional provisional trademark approvals in China, the same day the Trump Administration formally announced the sanctions lifting agreement,” she continues.
At the time of publication, a post featuring Crockett’s remarks during the hearing had been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on X.
“Jasmine Crockett, like Joe Biden, is a China-loving puppet of the Chinese Communist Party who continues to sell out America,” Trump spokeswoman Zhang said. Newsweek “The fact is, China has grown stronger under a weak Biden Presidency, and our allies are put at greater risk as China strengthens its economic and military power.”
“Deadly Chinese-made fentanyl continues to flow into American communities, killing countless people, while illegal Chinese immigrants are the fastest growing group crossing our southern border,” he continued. “Only Donald J. Trump can stop this.”
In 2020, Anthony Scaramucci, a former senior Trump administration official, accused his former boss of lifting sanctions on ZTE that had been imposed several months earlier over the company’s trade with Iran and North Korea as part of an attempt to “blackmail China for personal gain.”
According to multiple reports at the time, Trump asked for the sanctions against ZTE to be lifted just days after China approved a $500 million loan to an Indonesian theme park that had licensed then-President Trump’s name and had signed a lucrative contract with the Trump Organization.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom, seeking common ground and finding connections.
