Trump Discussed Biden With China's Xi in June – Reports
06:58 04.10.2019
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – US President Donald Trump discussed ex-VP Joe Biden, who is currently in a centre of a scandal over his links with Ukraine, with Chinese leader Xi Jinping back in June, media reported, citing two people familiar with the conversation, on Friday, amid Trump's calls for probes into Biden to be conducted in Ukraine and China.
On Thursday, Trump said both Ukraine and China should launch investigations into the ex-vice president and his son Hunter Biden. Notably, when asked if he had asked Xi Jinping to probe the Bidens, Trump said, he had not, adding it was "something we can start thinking about." Trump has also claimed that Hunter Biden had received major investments from China.
The CNN reported, citing the sources, that Biden's political prospects had been addressed by Trump during his phone call with Xi on June 18.
The two leaders also reportedly discussed Elizabeth Warren, who is a Democratic candidate in the 2020 presidential election alongside Biden.
The reports also claimed that Trump had assured the Chinese leader he would remain silent on anti-government protests in the Asian country's special administrative region of Hong Kong as trade talks between Washington and Beijing progressed.
The transcript of the call had since been kept in the highly secure electronic system where the record of the high-profile call between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had been stored, the reports added.
During their call, Trump and Zelenskyy discussed Biden's and his son's links with Ukraine. A whistleblower complaint about it and the subsequent publication of the call transcript by the White House prompted the Democrats to initiate an impeachment inquiry.
The Democrats alleged that the president had sought to solicit a foreign country's interference in the 2020 presidential election by pressing Zelenskyy to investigate the Bidens' business dealings in Ukraine, something denied by Trump.
Hunter Biden was a board member at Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Ukraine's former Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin led an investigation into the firm, but the probe was subsequently closed and Shokin was dismissed. According to media reports, Shokin said the investigation had been ended out of fear of the United States.
© Sputnik
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