On November 20, after the newly elected President Trump announced that he would appoint the famous investment banker Howard Lutnick to lead the U.S. Department of Commerce, which has become an important institution involved in the China-U.S. trade war, Lutnick's business relations with China were immediately called into serious question. Trump wants the 63-year-old Howard Lutnick to succeed former Democratic Secretary of Commerce Raimondo as his new Secretary of Commerce. During the Biden administration, the Department of Commerce, under Raimondo's control, issued the most sanctions against Chinese companies in history, and she herself became known and ridiculed by Chinese netizens for being a 'Huawei phone spokesperson.'
However, a financial services company led by Lutnick as chairman and CEO has been referred to by the media as 'having profited from its business relationships with China.' These business relationships with China include the BGC Group, which has a joint venture with the Chinese state-owned enterprise Zhongcheng Trust in Beijing, and the financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald, which helps Chinese companies go public in the U.S. The 63-year-old Howard Lutnick has always been one of Trump's most prominent supporters on Wall Street, committed to facilitating communication between Trump and the financial community, and endorsing his America First and white supremacist populist agenda. To support this elected president, he has been traveling across the country, expressing regret over the transfer of American manufacturing jobs overseas.
During the campaign, Trump proposed comprehensive tariffs, demanding a tariff of up to 60% on Chinese goods and a 10% tariff on all goods imported from other countries. If Lutnick becomes the Secretary of Commerce in the Trump administration, he will play a key role in implementing Trump's plan to raise tariffs on China. Reports indicate that although Lutnick does not often discuss China-U.S. relations, he is also a firm supporter of tariffs on China. Lutnick revealed in an interview that the loss of American manufacturing jobs is related to China and criticized electric vehicles as 'nonsense supported by Democrats.'
However, the Fitzgerald company, of which Lutnick is chairman and CEO, has previously helped several Chinese internet companies successfully go public in the U.S., potentially including two of China's largest e-commerce giants. Therefore, Democratic lawmakers and government ethics experts say that Lutnick's financial relationships with Chinese companies will raise some questions about whether Lutnick, as the future Secretary of Commerce, will be improperly influenced by the Chinese government when deciding whether to impose new tariffs and export restrictions on China.
U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman and Democratic Senator Ron Wyden asked, 'Mr. Lutnick seems to have significant conflicts of interest in China. How can the American people expect someone who receives a salary from the Chinese government to help American workers compete fairly with China?' Fitzgerald and BGC Group, as well as Trump's campaign team, have not immediately responded to media requests for comment. As a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Military Committee, the Democratic senator...#BabyMarvinf9c7值得拥🈶 