Ivanka Trump’s fashion and homewares business received initial approval from the Chinese government for five trademark applications days before her father announced a U-turn in policy on ZTE, a Chinese telecoms firm that has admitted breaking US sanctions on Iran and North Korea.

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Chinese trademark documents detailing the approvals were made public by Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (Crew), a watchdog group. The group said the first daughter and White House adviser, who represents the US at diplomatic events, already held more than a dozen trademarks in China and multiple pending applications. Donald Trump holds more than 100 trademarks in China.

The five approvals, for applications made in 2017, came through on 7 May. On 13 May, Trump made the surprise announcement that he had instructed the Department of Commerce to help get ZTE “back into business”.

In April, the US government accused ZTE of misleading regulators after it settled charges of violating sanctions against North Korea and Iran. Its punishment was to be banned from US suppliers for seven years.

The latest registration approvals won by Ivanka Trump Marks LLC include business trademark rights on goods including bathmats, textiles and baby blankets. While Ivanka Trump has stepped back from running the company while serving as an adviser to her father, she continues to profit from the business.

In the last three months, with what experts say is unusual speed, China has granted final approval for 13 trademarks and provisional approval for eight more. According to the New York Times, Ivanka Trump now holds 34 trademarks in the world’s second-largest economy. While she does not have a large business in China, most of her US imports are shipped from there. Clothing has been exempted from tariffs threatened by her father as part of his aggressive trade policy.

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Crew executive director Noah Bookbinder told the Associated Press the timing of the announcement “raises significant questions about corruption, as it invites the possibility that [Ivanka Trump] could be benefiting financially from her position and her father’s presidency or that she could be influenced in her policy work by countries’ treatment of her business”.



In an open letter, Crew chair and former White House ethics chief Norm Eisen and Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a nonprofit that advocates for campaign finance reform, wrote that Donald Trump’s children, Ivanka, Donald Jr and Eric, and son-in-law Jared Kushner “engage in business activities and trade on their relationship with the president to pursue business deals and accumulate wealth”.

Some countries, they said, “will no doubt see this as a way to curry favor with President Trump”.

Trump initiated a trade dispute with China earlier this year, imposing tariffs on steel and aluminium imports and later demanding that China boost imports by $200bn. In retaliation, China said it would target imports of US soybean and pork products. Amidst negotiations, the “trade war” was recently placed “on hold”, in the words of treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin.

By far the most politically contentious aspect of the dispute involves ZTE. The telecom giant is dependent on imports of US-made chips and was facing bankruptcy. In what was widely viewed as a peace offering to Beijing, Trump lifted the US ban, so long as ZTE committed to buying US parts and paid a $1.3bn fine.

The move was widely opposed in the US. On Sunday, the Florida Republican senator Marco Rubio warned that Congress would move to block the deal.

“None of these companies should be operating in this country,” Rubio told Face the Nation on CBS, also naming the Chinese telecoms firm Huawei. “None of them.”

Trump has defended his move, tweeting earlier this month that it was “reflective of the larger trade deal we are negotiating with China and my personal relationship with President Xi [Jinping]”.

Representatives for Ivanka Trump did not immediately answer media requests for comment.