A Chinese international relations scholar has risen to fame — and caught the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump — after suggesting that China had “old friends” within the top echelons of power in America.

In a speech on Nov. 28, Zhai Dongsheng, the vice dean of Renmin University’s school of international studies, said Beijing had failed to resolve issues with Washington during the trade war because “Wall Street failed to settle issues with Trump.”

From 1992 to 2016,  China had been able to settle disputes with Washington since Beijing had “old friends in the U.S. inner circle of power,” Zhai said.

The mainland scholar said U.S. traditional political elites had close ties with Wall Street. Now that Joe Biden, who is among such elites, is expected to become the next president, China can ease its tensions with the U.S. by using “appropriate means to send its goodwill” to him, Zhai said.

Zhai also hinted that China had invested in a fund operated by Biden’s son and said a Biden administration would mean an opportunity for China.

Video recordings of Zhai’s remarks soon went viral online and caught the attention of Trump, who retweeted them on Monday. The clips have since been removed from Chinese social media.

Fox News political commentator Tucker Carlson said Zhai was a consultant to President Xi Jinping and other top Chinese leaders and that his remarks showed that American elites had been working for China.

Hu Xijin, chief editor of China’s hawkish Global Times newspaper, downplayed Zhai’s remarks, calling them spiced-up tales by people who like to brag about their ties with high-level figues to seek attention.

Click here for Chinese version

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play