{"id":586743,"date":"2021-07-09T05:05:48","date_gmt":"2021-07-09T09:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=586743"},"modified":"2021-07-09T05:05:49","modified_gmt":"2021-07-09T09:05:49","slug":"blumenthal-and-wife-have-six-figure-investment-in-chinese-government-linked-retail-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blumenthal-and-wife-have-six-figure-investment-in-chinese-government-linked-retail-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Blumenthal and Wife Have Six-Figure Investment in Chinese Government-Linked Retail Center"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fblumenthal-and-wife-have-six-figure-investment-in-chinese-government-linked-retail-center%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=586743&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div readability=\"30.815331010453\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/\">Democrats<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">Wealthy Democrat says he was unaware of Chinese investment until contacted by the Washington Free Beacon<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"485\" height=\"340\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/blumenthal-1.jpg\" class=\"w-full lazyload blur-up wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 485px) 100vw, 485px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/blumenthal.jpg 485w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/blumenthal-300x210.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" \/><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\tSen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) \/ AP\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/chuck-ross\/\" title=\"Posts by Chuck Ross\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Chuck Ross<\/a> \u2022 July 9, 2021 5:00 am<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div readability=\"90.262289673375\">\n<p>Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) and his wife Cynthia have a six-figure investment in a massive retail shopping complex in Shanghai that is part of a partnership between a Chinese government-controlled business consortium and Disney.<\/p>\n<p>The Blumenthals have an investment of between $100,000 and $250,000 in U.S. Shanghai LLC, according to the senator\u2019s annual financial disclosures. U.S. Shanghai LLC is a subsidiary of Malkin Properties, a company owned by Blumenthal\u2019s brother-in-law, Scott Malkin. The company partnered in 2014 with the state-owned Shanghai Shendi Group to build Shanghai Village, a 592,000-square-foot luxury shopping resort next to Shanghai Disneyland. The Blumenthals are also invested in U.S. Suzhou LLC, another Malkin-owned shopping center near Shanghai.<\/p>\n<p>A spokeswoman for Blumenthal said the senator was unaware that he and his wife are invested in the venture until contacted for comment by the <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em>. Maria McElwain, a communications director for Blumenthal, said Blumenthal\u2019s wife, Cynthia Malkin Blumenthal, is a passive investor in an investment vehicle controlled by her brother\u2019s company. McElwain said Cynthia Blumenthal &#8220;has no control, influence, or discretionary power&#8221; over the Shanghai investment. She also said the Blumenthals have not discussed the investment with Malkin.<\/p>\n<p>But the investment could pose a political liability for Blumenthal, who is up for reelection next year. American firms\u2019 investments in China have come under increased skepticism out of concerns that the Chinese government is using its partnerships to exploit the United States. Blumenthal\u2019s apparent lack of awareness of the investment is also a possible testament to his vast wealth. Blumenthal is one of the richest members of the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>Corporate filings in Connecticut show that U.S. Shanghai LLC was formed on Feb. 4, 2014. The Blumenthals bought a stake in the company worth between $15,000 and $50,000 on Aug. 7, 2014. They purchased another stake in 2019, which was disclosed in Blumenthal\u2019s annual financial disclosure report last year.<\/p>\n<p>Former attorney general William Barr <a href=\"https:\/\/wdwnt.com\/2020\/07\/u-s-attorney-general-barr-accuses-the-walt-disney-company-of-kowtowing-to-chinese-government\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">criticized<\/a> Disney last year for its partnership with the Shanghai Shendi Group, the company also working with Malkin Properties. Shanghai Shendi is a consortium of three state-owned companies: Shanghai Radio, Film, and Television Development Company; Jin Jiang Hotels; and the Lujiazui Group. Barr said more than 300 employees at the Disney theme park were part of the Chinese Communist Party.<\/p>\n<p>Disney is one of several American companies that comply with Chinese government edicts in order to continue doing business in China. The <em>New York Times<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/06\/15\/business\/international\/china-disney.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> in 2016 that the Shanghai Shendi Group met with Disney executives to approve which theme park rides would appear at the resort. The <em>Times<\/em> reported that Disney opted against deploying classic Disney rides like Space Mountain and Jungle Cruise.<\/p>\n<p>Malkin Properties did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats Wealthy Democrat says he was unaware of Chinese investment until contacted by the Washington Free Beacon  Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) \/ AP &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2314318,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/blumenthal-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Blumenthal and Wife Have Six-Figure Investment in Chinese Government-Linked Retail Center","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-586743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/blumenthal-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Blumenthal and Wife Have Six-Figure Investment in Chinese Government-Linked Retail Center","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2314318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}