Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
November 20, 2017
The AP looks at Trump’s
business associates across Asia
BEFRIENDING BEHEMOTHS. Rescuers attempt to push stranded whales back into the ocean at Ujong
Kareng beach in Aceh province, Indonesia. An official said 10 whales were stranded at the beach, which attracted
hundreds of onlookers who posed for pictures with them. (AP Photo/Syahrol Rizal)
Beached whales led out to sea
from Indonesian beach but four die
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — Four
of 10 whales that beached off Indonesia’s
Aceh province have died because of
injuries and exhaustion, a fisheries official
said.
The sperm whales became stranded at
Ujong Kareng beach and attracted
hundreds of onlookers who posed for
pictures with them.
Nur Mahdi, the head of Aceh’s marine
and fisheries office, said two whales that
were both extensively scratched and
bruised died, followed by two others that
were very weak.
He said five of the giant mammals were
refloated and led out to sea by boats, but
waves washed two back to shore. Later,
fishing boats led the pair and a remaining
whale out to sea.
Mahdi said whale pods follow a group
leader and can become stranded if the
leader swims too close to shore due to
sickness or other reasons.
Several dozen strandings of whales,
dolphins, and other marine mammals are
reported each year in Indonesia, an
archipelago nation of more than 17,000
islands.
Ten pilot whales died last year when a
pod of more than 30 were stranded off the
coast of Probolinggo district in East Java
province.
Trudeau says he discussed
human rights with Filipino leader
MANILA, The Philip-
pines (AP) — Canadian
Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau said he raised con-
cerns about human rights
and extrajudicial killings
in the Philippines when he
met
with
President
Rodrigo Duterte, whose
war on drugs has earned
widespread condemnation
for leaving thousands of
suspects dead.
Trudeau told a news
conference he mentioned
the issue to Duterte in a
meeting before Canada’s
summit in the Philippines
with
the
10-member
Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Trudeau was the first
leader out of the 20
attending the ASEAN sum-
mit and related meetings
who publicly said he
brought up the touchy
issue with the volatile
Filipino leader.
“I also mentioned human
rights, the rule of law, and
specifically extrajudicial
killings as being an issue
that Canada is concerned
with,” he said at the news
conference. “I impressed on
him the need for respect for
the rule of law, and as
always offered Canada’s
support and help as a
friend to move forward on
what is a real challenge.”
He said it comes as no
surprise that he brought up
the issue of human rights
because it is something
people expect of Canada
and is important to
Canadians and the world.
HUMAN-RIGHTS CONCERNS. Canadian Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau, center, shakes hands with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen
Xuan Phuc, left, and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, right, during
a photo session of the ASEAN-Canada 40th Commemorative session in
Manila, the Philippines. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP)
Duterte was receptive to Sanders said human rights
his comments and their came up “briefly” in the
exchange was cordial and context of the Philippines’
fight against illegal drugs.
positive, Trudeau said.
Duterte is sensitive to She did not say if Trump
such criticism, and in the was critical of Duterte’s
past called then U.S. program.
President Barack Obama a
Harry Roque, Duterte’s
“son of a bitch” after the spokesman, said there was
State Department publicly no mention of human
expressed concern over the rights or extralegal killings
Philippine
anti-drug during the meeting with
campaign.
Trump, but there was a
Current U.S. President lengthy discussion of the
Donald Trump, who also Philippines’ war on drugs,
attended
the
ASEAN with Duterte doing most of
summit, did not publicly the explaining.
take Duterte to task for the
The two sides later
drug crackdown. Instead, issued a statement saying
Trump said he and Duterte they “underscored that hu-
“had a great relationship,” man rights and the dignity
and avoided questions of human life are essential,
about whether he raised and agreed to continue
human-rights concerns in a mainstreaming
the
meeting
with
the human-rights agenda in
Philippine leader.
their national programs.”
The White House later
said they discussed the
Islamic State group, illegal
drugs, and trade during the
40-minute meeting. Press
secretary Sarah Huckabee
U.S. President Donald Trump has tem-
porarily put his sons in charge of his
company, but the Trump Organization
still does business abroad. That has
prompted questions about whether that
might influence Trump’s official decisions.
Below is a look at some of his business
partners and contacts in Asia, where he
wound down his recent five-nation trip:
The Philippines
Trump’s partner in a Philippines
venture, Jose E.B. Antonio, was named a
“special envoy” to the U.S. by Philippine
President Rodrigo Duterte on October 28,
less than two weeks before the November
2016 U.S. election. Antonio is chairman of
Century Properties Group Inc., which
partnered with Trump for the branding of
the posh Trump Tower in Manila’s Makati
business district.
The $150-million, 57-story tower was
quietly turned over to unit owners earlier
this year. The muted opening contrasted
with the project’s high-profile 2012
groundbreaking rites, when Trump’s sons
Donald Jr. and Eric posed for cameras in
Manila, smiling and holding shovels.
Antonio rose from modest beginnings
but has been listed along with his son
Robbie Antonio by Forbes magazine as the
Philippines’ 28th-richest family, with a
combined net worth of more than $400
million in 2017. Paris Hilton, Versace, and
Armani are among Antonio’s other rich
and famous business partners. The
businessman says he has known Trump
for many years and his son Robbie is
described on his company’s website as “a
good friend of the Trump family.”
China
Trump has met plenty of Chinese entre-
preneurs, but his biggest friends in China
in financial terms are state-owned banks
and companies. Industrial & Commercial
Bank of China Ltd., the world’s No. 1 com-
mercial lender by assets, is among the big-
gest tenants of Trump Tower in Manhat-
tan. Its lease ends in 2019, which has
prompted questions about how a sitting
American president’s family company will
negotiate new terms with a bank con-
trolled by the Chinese Communist Party.
Trump’s partners in Trump World Golf
Club Dubai in the Persian Gulf awarded a
$32-million contract to China State
Construction Engineering Corp. to build
the project in a deal reported in September
by McClatchy. That prompted questions
about whether the Trump Organization
was honoring its pledge not to do business
with foreign governments.
In the private sector, Jack Ma, founder
of Alibaba Group, the world’s biggest
online commerce company by total sales,
was among the stream of Chinese business
leaders who visited Trump Tower in Man-
hattan to meet the president following his
election.
The Kushner Cos., the family company
of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, cut
short a sales campaign in China after a
Chinese businesswoman, Ding Ying, was
linked to an effort to attract investors in
exchange for U.S. visas that advertised
ties to the “Trump family.”
Anbang Insurance Group Ltd., one of
China’s biggest insurers, discussed possi-
bly investing in a Manhattan skyscraper
owned by Kushner Cos. Those talks ended
in March without a deal.
Japan
Masayoshi Son, Japan’s richest man and
the chief executive and founder of
Softbank Group Corp., was quick to visit
Trump after the 2016 election and to
promise $50 billion for investments in U.S.
startups that he said would create 50,000
jobs. After the meeting in Trump Tower,
the then-president-elect praised Son as a
“great man of industry.”
Son, 60, said he had visited Trump to
“celebrate his new job,” adding, “Because
he said he would do a lot of deregulation, I
said, ‘This is great, the U.S. will become
great again.’”
A Japanese of Korean ancestry who
graduated from the University of
California, Son has won both criticism and
accolades as a daring investor who has
gathered partners in diverse technology
sectors from around the world, and has
been likened by some to billionaire
investor Warren Buffett.
Indonesia
Billionaire Hary Tanoesoedibjo founded
his own political party and had ambitions
to run for Indonesian president in 2019,
but now says he’ll support current
President Joko Widodo. His company is
building two resorts in Indonesia — one in
Bali and the other in West Java — that
Trump’s business is involved with through
management and licensing deals.
Usually known as Tanoe, the
52-year-old tycoon is the founder of the
media and real estate conglomerate MNC.
He has been dogged by a criminal investi-
gation this year into accusations that he
sent threatening text messages to a deputy
attorney general who was investigating a
tax case involving an MNC company.
Malaysia
Malaysian property developer Tiah Joo
Kim, whose father is one of the Southeast
Asian country’s wealthiest businessmen,
licensed the Trump brand for a hotel and
condominium tower in Vancouver,
Canada, before Trump’s political ascent.
Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric attended
the opening in March for the gleaming,
69-story building, where a one-bedroom
apartment at 699 square feet starts at
around $1 million.
In an interview with The Associated
Press just before the hotel’s opening
earlier this year, Joo Kim said he found
Trump’s statements about Muslims, Mexi-
cans, and women “extremely stressful.” “I
did a lot of soul searching because people
were attacking me for it,” he said.
Joo Kim, 37, is the son of tycoon Tony
Tiah Thee Kian, a staunch Christian who
built his fortune in stockbroking in the
1990s before expanding into real estate.
Groomed to inherit the family business,
Joo Kim last year was appointed CEO of its
property arm, TA Global. He also runs the
Canadian-based Holborn Group. Raised in
Kuala Lumpur, he studied at Oral Roberts
University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and
earned a master’s degree in international
business at Macquarie University in
Sydney.
Associated Press writers Elaine Kurtenbach in
Tokyo, Teresa Cerojano in Manila, the Philippines,
Joe McDonald in Beijing, Stephen Wright in
Jakarta, Indonesia, and Eileen Ng in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.
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