Wilbur Ross Remained on Chinese Joint Venture Board While Running U.S.-China Trade War

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and other Trump administration officials sit down with Chinese vice ministers and senior officials for trade negotiations at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington on Jan. 30, 2019. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Wilbur Ross, an investor-turned-U.S. commerce secretary, has long been accused of ethical violations because of his failure to extricate himself from his business ties. Documents obtained by Foreign Policy show that Ross’s potential conflicts of interest around Chinese business are greater than previously known.

In Chinese corporate documents obtained by Foreign Policy, Ross is listed as serving on the board of a Chinese joint venture until January 2019—nearly two years into his term as commerce secretary. That joint venture, now called Huaneng Invesco WLR (Beijing) Investment Fund Management Co., is an investment partnership formed in September 2008 between Huaneng Capital Services, the U.S. management company Invesco, and a firm Ross founded, WL Ross & Co. Huaneng Capital Services is an arm of China Huaneng Group, a major state-owned power producer.