Schwarzman Predicts Gentler Biden Approach to Beijing
Blackstone head has been close to Trump, but he also is an investor in Chinese companies.
Blackstone Group Chairman Stephen Schwarzman
One of Donald Trump’s biggest financial backers, Blackstone Group Chairman Stephen Schwarzman, declared that the Biden administration would take a “softer tone” regarding China, and that he expected less animosity between the two countries.
Schwarzman, who also happens to be an investor in China, has remained a Trump confidante, even though the financier publicly urged the outgoing president to accept Joe Biden’s victory.
On the question of punitive relations with China, though, Schwarzman and Trump really part company. “There is really a very substantial overlap of interest in these countries and the interest of the world,” the private equity chieftain said Tuesday in Hong Kong, according to Reuters. “I expect to see much less tension” during the Biden presidency.
By Syndicated Content
Jan 19, 2021 7:38 AM
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Blackstone Group Inc Chairman Stephen Schwarzman said on Tuesday that the new U.S. administration was going to take a softer tone towards China, and that he expected lower tensions between the two countries.
Schwarzman, one of Wall Street s biggest donors to President Donald Trump s re-election campaign, was speaking at a finance forum in Hong Kong. There is really a very substantial overlap of interest in these countries and the interest of the world, he said. I expect to see much less tension.
Schwarzman s remarks came one day before President-elect Joe Biden s inauguration.
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Two Princeton natives are the recipients of the Schwarzman Scholarship, designed to help prepare young, future leaders.
Ryan Zhang, a current senior at Harvard University from the Princeton area, and Ilene E, a senior at Princeton University, are now Schwarzman Scholars, one of the world’s most prestigious graduate fellowships located at Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.
Zhang will graduate in 2021 from Harvard with a bachelor’s degree in Social Studies and minors in Data Science and Chinese.
He has worked at the U.K. Foreign Office, the Congressional Research Service, and alongside Nobel-winning economists at MIT’s Poverty Action Lab, according to his biography posted on the Schwarzman website.
Nine Harvard affiliates, including four seniors at the College, were earlier this month named Schwarzman Scholars, an academic honor awarded to individuals interested in studying China and its relationship with the world.
The College students selected for the fellowship include Caleb A. Ren ’21, Tony Shu ’21, Henry R. “Hank” Sparks ’21, and Ryan Zhang ’21. They will be joined by Ariana L. Chaivaranon ’18, Harvard Medical School student Wan Fung Chui, Carlos E. Flores ’18, Molly K. Leavens ’19, and Harvard School of Education graduate Xiaoheng “Sally” Xu as members of the program’s sixth class of scholars.
Established by Harvard Business School alumnus Stephen A. Schwarzman in 2013, the scholarship finances a one-year Master’s program in Global Affairs at Schwarzman College, a residential college located within Tsinghua University in Beijing. This year, the program selected 154 scholars from 39 countries and 99 universities, out of more than 3,600 applicant
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Chairman and CEO of the Blackstone Group Stephen A. Schwarzman (left) and PIMCO s co-founder William Gross (right) are among 13 billionaires who have signed the Giving Pledge since May 2019. Getty Images
Since May 2019, another 13 billionaires around the world have signed the Giving Pledge, a global, multi-generational commitment by some of the world’s wealthiest to give a majority of their wealth to philanthropy or charitable causes, either during their lifetimes or in their wills.
Among those new to the list are William Gross, co-founder of PIMCO, the world s largest fixed-income investment company, and Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman, CEO, and co-founder of investment firm Blackstone, according to the Giving Pledge’s announcement.