It was the huffington post which first pointed out the timing of Trump's ZTE concessions relative to a Trump Organization-affiliated project the Chinese government agreed to finance.<p>Financing article: <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2145808/trump-indonesia-project-latest-stop-chinas-belt-and-road" rel="nofollow">http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2145808...</a><p>HuffPo correlation story: <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-china-zte_us_5af9f701e4b0200bcab7fa66" rel="nofollow">https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-china-zte_us_5af9...</a><p>This is not to say that the two are necessarily connected so much as it's to say that not <i>investigating</i> the timing of the two is to exhibit a lack of due diligence.
Trade negotiations are underway. This is a part of that, as was the initial ban. Trump does this again and again: he creates leverage in the form of negative consequences should he walk away from the table. Then he gives some of it back much to the relief of the other side, in exchange for something else he needs. He negotiated thousands of deals, some of which were very complicated. It could well be that he’s the strongest negotiator we ever had in that position.