Historical context:
2016
U.S. President Barack Obama signs initial agreement to the TPP / Trans-Pacific Partnership strengthening trade relationships with 11 other non-Chinese nations (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam) to reduce their dependence on Chinese trade and bring their interests closer to ours.
2017
On Jan. 23 (three days into office), U.S. President Donald Trump *withdraws* the US from the TPP, collapsing it and strengthening China's economic position at the cost of America's and the other TPP members'. Economists are mystified by this decision.
2020
With investigation of his tax records, it is revealed that Trump had held a secret Chinese bank account through a Trump shell company in China -- and in 2017 that company received a $17.5 million influx of cash (more than all it received the previous five years), whereupon Trump himself withdrew $15.1 million from its capital fund. That year his Chinese income totaled about $25 million; and his multi-year taxes to China were $188,000. (You may recall he had paid only $750 to the US in each of 2016 and 2017... just one reason he had kept his tax returns hidden not only from public view but also from Congressional oversight.)
(Source: www.nytimes.com/2020/10/20/us/trump-taxes-china.html )
18 U.S. Code § 201 - Bribery of public officials and witnesses [excerpted]:
(b) Whoever— ...
(2) being a public official or person selected to be a public official, directly or indirectly, corruptly demands, seeks, receives, accepts, or agrees to receive or accept anything of value personally or for any other person or entity, in return for:
(A) being influenced in the performance of any official act; ...
shall be fined under this title or not more than three times the monetary equivalent of the thing of value, whichever is greater, or imprisoned for not more than fifteen years, or both, and may be disqualified from holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.
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