While the U.S. was focused on investigating Russian interference in U.S. politics, China was plotting its own campaign to influence the young Trump administration. It got uncomfortably close.
Listen to SupChina editor-at-large and Sinica podcast host Kaiser Kuo read this article.
Elliott Broidy was riding high after Donald Trump’s election day victory in 2016. The Los Angeles businessman had been one of Trump’s top fundraisers during the campaign, helping raise more than $150 million for the Republican Party. And as a reward, he was soon named deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee and vice chair of the Presidential Inaugural Committee.
For the barrel-chested and mustachioed Broidy, this represented something of a comeback. While he had served as finance chairman of the RNC from 2007 to 2008, and had once hosted a fundraiser at his Bel Air mansion for President George W. Bush, Broidy’s reputation had been tarnished in 2009, when he was accused and pleaded guilty to paying kickbacks to gain business from a New York state pension fund. He more or less laid low for seven years.
But with Trump in the White House, the 59-year-old Broidy was o
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When Ken Wilcox, a former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, moved to Shanghai in 2011, he was optimistic and eager to start up the bank's new joint venture in China. A decade later, however, he is extremely cynical about U.S. business interests in China. While analysts will, rightly, be debating SVB's missteps in the U.S. for the foreseeable future, Wilcox insists the bank's challenges in China should not be overlooked.
The former secretary of state talks about how the Trump administration changed U.S.-China relations; why he accused Beijing of genocide in Xinjiang; and why U.S. politicians should visit Taiwan.
