US President Donald Trump has confirmed that he has a Chinese bank account.
A report by the New York Times mentioned that the account is controlled by the Trump International Hotels Management and paid local taxes between 2013 and 2015.
According to Trump’s spokesperson, it was set up “to explore the potential for hotel deals in Asia”.
The New York Times revealed the account after getting Mr Trump’s tax records, which included both personal and company financial details.
Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, told the NYT that Trump International Hotels Management had “opened an account with a Chinese bank having offices in the United States in order to pay the local taxes”.
“No deals, transactions or other business activities ever materialized and, since 2015, the office has remained inactive,” Mr Garten said.
“Though the bank account remains open, it has never been used for any other purpose,” he told the NYT.
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Donald Trump has many business interests both in the US and overseas. These include golf courses in Scotland and Ireland and a chain of five-star luxury hotels.
He has remained critical of US companies doing businesses in China and sparked trade war between both countries.
He said in August that he wanted to offer tax credits to entice US firms to move factories out of China. He also warned to strip government contracts from firms that continue to outsource work to China.
In a speech, Mr Trump pledged to create 10m jobs in 10 months, saying “we will end our reliance on China”.
