Life

Is It Kosher For Ivanka To Do Business With China?

Ivanka makes international, if not intergalactic, inroads. Image by Getty Images

By Phoebe Maltz Bovy April 18, 2017

Ivanka Trump’s brand is doing well, and its supporters extend well beyond Trump country. The Associated Press reports that “[o]n April 6, Ivanka Trump’s company won provisional approval from the Chinese government for three new trademarks, giving it monopoly rights to sell Ivanka brand jewelry, bags and spa services in the world’s second-largest economy.”

This is a possible cause for concern, and not because “Ivanka Trump’s mid-market collection of ruffled blouses, shifts and wedges” are inherently objectionable. No, the issue is — as per usual — whether it’s ethically on the up-and-up to advise the president while also selling merch:

“Ivanka has so many China ties and conflicts, yet she and Jared appear deeply involved in China contacts and policy. I would never have allowed it,” said Norman Eisen, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under Barack Obama. “For their own sake, and the country’s, Ivanka and Jared should consider stepping away from China matters.”

Are they “‘stepping away from China matters’?? Not so much:

Publicly, Ivanka has taken a gracious, charming approach toward Beijing. During the Mar-a-Lago meetings, her daughter, 5-year-old Arabella stood in a gilded room and sang a traditional Chinese song, in Mandarin, for China’s president, Xi Jinping. The video, which was lavishly praised by Chinese state media, played over 2.2 million times on China’s popular news portal qq.com.

This is not the first time Forward readers are hearing about Arabella’s talents in this area.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy edits the Sisterhood, and can be reached at [email protected]. She is the author of “The Perils Of ‘Privilege’”, from St. Martin’s Press. Follow her on Twitter, @tweetertation

Phoebe Maltz Bovy is a former editor of the Sisterhood blog at the Forward. Her writing has appeared in several publications, including The New Republic and The Atlantic. Her book, “The Perils of ‘Privilege,’” was published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017. She has a PhD in French and French Studies from New York University, and has read a lot of 19th century French Jewish newspapers for a 21st century American.

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