Fleshing out Trump's China relationship

Steps from Trump Tower in Manhattan, the 43-story 1290 Avenue of the Americas skyscraper spans an entire city block. Trump owns a 30 percent stake in the property valued at more than $1 billion, making it one of the priciest addresses in his portfolio, according to his financial disclosures.

Trump’s ownership of the building received a smattering of attention before and after his 2016 campaign. But the arrangement with the Bank of China in 2012 has gone largely unnoticed. The questions surrounding Trump’s ties to the Bank of China come as his campaign is claiming that Biden would be a gift to the Communist country and America’s chief economic rival.

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The 1290 Avenue of the Americas deal was reported previously by several news outlets, including The New York Times in stories about the “maze” of Trump’s finances and a history of how he came to partly own the building.

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The building at 1290 Avenue of the Americas is a particular point of pride for Trump, who mentioned it when he announced his candidacy in 2015.

“I beat China all the time,” Trump said during a speech at the time from Trump Tower, adding, “I own a big chunk of the Bank of America building [in San Francisco] and 1290 Avenue of the Americas that I got from China in a war. Very valuable. I love China.”

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The bank’s initial financing of the property stands out because Trump and his campaign have repeatedly highlighted the same bank's role in a $1.5 billion deal announced in 2013 by partners of Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Critics of the Bidens have seized on the fact that the agreement materialized just days after Hunter Biden traveled to China with the then-vice president, who was there on official business.

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The Trump campaign has steadily increased its focus on trying to portray Biden as weak on China amid rising voter disapproval of China, the source of the coronavirus pandemic.

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[Trump's China business] connections extend far beyond the Avenue of the Americas loan: Chinese state-owned companies are constructing two luxury Trump developments in United Arab Emirates and Indonesia. The president and his daughter Ivanka Trump, a White House adviser, have been awarded trademarks by China’s government. And his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has courted Chinese investors in at least one other real estate deal.

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Trump has denied he has any conflicts. But he rejected calls to fully separate from his namesake company, which comprises more than 500 businesses and includes properties in nearly two dozen countries, after he was sworn into office. He still owns his business, though he asked his adult sons to run it. His holdings were placed in a trust designed to hold assets for his benefit from which he can draw money at any time without public knowledge.

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The debt [on the building at 1290 Avenue of the Americas] stems from a $950 million refinancing deal in 2012, to which the Bank of China chipped in $211 million. With the loan, Bank of China became the first in the nation to enter the U.S. securitization market, according to a 2013 Wall Street Journal article. Vornado's federal financial disclosures show it and the other owner of 1290 Avenue of the Americas — Trump — are still indebted from the 2012 deal.

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[T]he Bank of China issued a statement Friday evening stating that it sold its debt on the building weeks after the 2012 loan on the property. Vornado Realty Trust owns 70 percent of the building.

“On November 7, 2012 several financial institutions including the Bank of China participated in a commercial mortgage loan of $950 million to Vornado Realty Trust,” said Peter Reisman, managing director and chief communications officer of Bank of China U.S.A. “Within 22 days, the loan was securitized and sold into the [commercial mortgage-backed securities] market, as is a common practice in the industry. Bank of China has not had any ownership interest in that loan since late November 2012.”

Another public document, however, lists Bank of China as a creditor on 1290 Avenue of the Americas even after the bank said it was no longer involved in the property.

  Politico

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.