Mr. Trump has recently appointed Scaramucci as the new communications director, causing the resignation of Sean Spicer. However, Scaramucci is having trouble selling his hedge fund SkyBridge Capital to Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co, in order to clear any conflict-of-interests, because the Committee on Foreign Investments (CFIUS) is blocking acquisitions by Chinese companies.
Rising trade tensions between China and the U.S. also could be contributing to increased hesitation by the committee, lawyers and bankers say. High-level trade talks between the two countries ended Wednesday without any concrete agreements, and President Donald Trump has said he would consider leveraging trade to get China’s help reining in North Korea.- “U.S. Stymies China Deals”, WSJ July 22-23, 2017
Scaramucci said in May the deal will go through in June. Meanwhile, Steven Mnuchin heads the CFIUS and it is staffed by political appointees.
It seems to me that Trump is not and has not been too worried about conflicts-of-interest. Should he be more cautious? Is it good for U.S. national security interests that there are less acquisitions of US companies by potentially Chinese-government-backed companies, or is this not a serious threat and is the US simply missing out on some capital inflow from China?
