Last year, author Peter Schweizer claimed in his book that former US Vice President Joe Biden’s son had clinched “a $1 billion private equity deal with a subsidiary of the Chinese government’s Bank of China”. In April, Biden signalled his readiness to enter the US 2020 presidential race.

In an interview with Fox News, US President Donald Trump said, in particular, that he deems it necessary to probe possible financial ties between former Vice President Joseph Biden and the Chinese government.

“One-hundred percent. It’s a disgrace”, Trump said when asked by a Fox News host whether such an investigation is needed.

“And then he says China’s not a competitor of ours. China is a massive competitor of ours. They want to take over the world,” Trump added in an apparent reference to Biden.

The statement comes a few days after Trump tweeted that Beijing is “dreaming” that “Sleepy Joe Biden” or any other Democratic candidate would replace him in the Oval Office in 2020. Biden said that he would enter the 2020 US presidential race last month.

In 2018, author Peter Schweizer argued in his book  “Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends” that the former US Vice President’s son Hunter Biden had pocketed millions of dollars after his deal with Beijing.

“The vice president is negotiating a bunch of very sensitive issues with the Chinese, including the South China Sea, trade, tech transfer, etc. Shortly after they return to the US, Hunter Biden’s firm receives a $1 billion private equity deal from the Chinese government,” Schweizer claimed.

Biden rejected the author’s allegations, alleging that Schweizer had created politically-motivated stories.

Meanwhile, the latest round of US-China trade talks came to a standstill earlier this month as Washington slapped a new set of tariffs on $200 bln worth of Chinese goods. Beijing has already pledged to retaliate against the move.

The two sides have been trying to resolve disagreements following Trump’s decision last June to impose 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods in a bid to fix the US-Chinese trade deficit. Since then, the two countries have exchanged several rounds of new trade duties.

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