In November 2017, CNBC had booked Hugo Shong, a prominent Chinese venture capitalist, to talk about bilateral business relations between the United States and China, as the first year of President Donald Trump's tenure was nearing a close. Trump was on a 12-day tour through Asia, his second major international trip since taking office. On the agenda during his two-day stop in Beijing: bilateral meetings with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Kequiang; a "meet-and-greet" with U.S. Embassy staff; a speech and business event at the Great Hall of the People; and a receiving line at a state dinner. What wasn't on the White House or State Department agendas: a meeting with private equity investors convened by Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior advisor, and U.S. Ambassador Terry Branstad. During our conversation with Shong at the time, he revealed he had accepted the administration's invitation for Chinese investors to offer advice in a small-group forum with the two U.S. officials as they worked to outline the administration's policy.

White House Senior adviser Jared Kushner attends bilateral meetings held by U.S. President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People on November 9, 2017 in Beijing, China. Thomas Peter | Getty Images

"Both sides, of course, realize we have challenges," Shong said of the meeting's tenor, in our two-person interview setup in the lobby of the China World hotel. "From the investment point of view, I can see both sides can benefit a lot for the future investment opportunities." The meeting and its guest list, according to two U.S. officials who spoke to CNBC after this story was first published, was arranged by Wendi Deng Murdoch, a longtime friend of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. According to the officials, who requested anonymity to discuss the meeting, the event was a "casual lunch" at which no official business – government or personal – was discussed. At the time of the meeting, the Kushner family was under fire for its pursuit of overseas investors while Jared Kushner occupied a senior role advising the president on foreign policy ranging from Middle East peace to trade with China and Mexico. Kushner reported divesting his stake in the family company, and his siblings took the reins of the business and its search for foreign investment.

The site of the One Journal Square luxury apartment project stands in Jersey City on May 9, 2017 in Jersey City, New Jersey. Getty Images

In the months immediately prior to the meeting, Kushner's sister Nicole Kushner Meyer referred to Jared at an event urging wealthy Chinese investors to buy $500,000 visas to come to the United States and participate in an upcoming New Jersey project. The Washington Post and New York Times reported that investors at the Beijing sales pitch saw Jared Kushner's celebrity status as a draw. Meyer later issued a formal apology, saying it was not her intention to use Jared to "lure investors." And then there was 666 Fifth Ave., the Kushner Companies' marquee New York property, with $1.4 billion in debt coming due and a search for a new owner coming up empty. In 2016, the company was forced to abandon a deal to sell a stake to China's Anbang Insurance amid concerns of a conflict of interest, should Trump win the White House. In August 2018, Qatar-backed Brookfield Properties announced it would pay upfront for a 99-year lease on the building, erasing the Kushner Companies' financial troubles.

Traffic passes outside 666 Fifth Avenue in New York. Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images