White House senior adviser Jared Kushner’s family business is seeking investments in China, specifically in the real estate sector. A controversial government program attracts Chinese traders to invest in exchange for U.S. residency.
According to U.S. media reports, Kushner’s sister Nicole Kushner Meyer had been to Beijing to solicit $150 million (RMB 651 million) worth of investment in a luxury apartment complex project in New Jersey.
As a senior adviser to his father-in-law, U.S. President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner has an extensive influence over domestic and foreign policy. Though the 36-year-old businessman resigned from the family company in January to work with the Trump administration, his family is criticized for seeking Chinese investments through the U.S. EB-5 visa program.
Through the program, foreign nationals can be granted permanent residency, also known as a green card, in return for at least half a million worth of investments in a U.S. business. The company must then provide 10 American jobs.
The family business’s investment campaign is “highlighting their ties to Mr. Kushner as they court investors,” a report by the New York Times said.
The project “means a lot to me and my entire family,” Nicole told more than 100 investors at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Beijing, mentioning Jared’s previous work as chief executive of Kushner Companies, the report said.
Promotional posters at the event were seen with the slogan: “Government supports it; Celebrity property developer builds it.”
QWOS, a Chinese government-approved immigration agency that organized the event, said that the Kushner Companies were also looking for investments in Shanghai and in China’s southern cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou next weekend.
In 1990, the EB-5 program was established to assist in spurring the U.S. economy by creating jobs and capital investments from foreigners. However, critics say that the program puts citizenship up for sale.
Detractors see Jared Kushner's family business taking advantage of the EB-5 program to lure investments in China.