Donald Trump has urged China to investigate Joe Biden, the former vice-president, blatantly encouraging a foreign nation to interfere in the 2020 presidential election even as Democrats pursue an impeachment inquiry into similar requests to Ukraine.
“China should start an investigation into the Bidens because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened in Ukraine,” Mr Trump said on Thursday.
The call for China to investigate Mr Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, comes as US trade negotiators continue talks with their Chinese counterparts in an attempt to secure a deal to end the trade war between the two economic powers.
Mr Trump has asked several world leaders for help — either to investigate the Bidens or to assist a review of the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, which concluded earlier this year.
In addition to pressuring Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, in a July 25 telephone call, Mr Trump has also requested help from Scott Morrison, the Australian prime minister, and reportedly from Boris Johnson, British prime minister.
Asked on Thursday if he had asked Xi Jinping, China’s president, to probe the Bidens, Mr Trump replied: “I haven’t, but it’s certainly something we can start thinking about.”
The White House declined to comment, and the US trade representative and the US Treasury did not respond to a request for comment on whether US officials had discussed an investigation of the Bidens in the trade negotiations.
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Mr Trump was speaking as the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives moves ahead quickly with an investigation into his call with Mr Zelensky, in which Mr Trump asked his counterpart to investigate Mr Biden and his son Hunter.
Mr Trump and his supporters have alleged — without providing evidence — that Mr Biden pressured Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor to stop an investigation into a Ukrainian gas company, Burisma, where Hunter Biden was once a board member.
The July call is central to the whistleblower complaint that sparked the impeachment investigation. It came a week after Mr Trump ordered his staff to withhold almost $400m in congressionally approved military aid to Ukraine to help it counter Russia.
Mr Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, have pushed unfounded theories that Mr Biden, while serving as Barack Obama’s vicepresident, helped his son do business in Ukraine and China. After the release of the whistleblower report last week, Mr Trump has doubled down on the claims to deflect attention from the accusations he faces.
The Biden campaign responded on Thursday that “the defining characteristic of Donald Trump’s presidency is the ongoing abuse of power”.
“What Donald Trump just said on the South Lawn of the White House [about China] was this election’s equivalent of his infamous ‘Russia, if you’re listening’ moment from 2016 — a grotesque choice of lies over truth and self over the country,” said Kate Bedingfield, deputy campaign manager for Mr Biden.
In the 2016 race, Mr Trump appeared to prod Russia to interfere in the election by urging it to locate thousands of emails that Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent, had deleted from the private server she used while working as US secretary of state.
