Democrat frontrunner and former Vice President Joe Biden (D) refused to answer questions about the deal Hunter Biden’s private equity firm and the Chinese government made, instead promising to address potential conflicts of interest on his first day in office, ABC News reported.

Throughout the week, Biden has refused to answer questions about his son’s foreign business dealings – securing $1.5 billion in investment from China particularly – which seemingly coincided with the former vice president’s “diplomatic work.” The issue popped up on the campaign trail a number of times this week, but Biden refused to elaborate. His staffers reportedly “blocked reporters” who approached him.

“At two separate campaign stops on Monday, Biden avoided questions about his son while his staff blocked reporters from approaching the candidate,” according to ABC News.

Instead of answering questions, Biden’s campaign sent ABC News a vague statement, detailing Biden’s supposed devotion to adhering to “executive branch ethics standards.” It added that Biden will issue an executive order on day one to “address conflicts of interest of any kind.”

Hunter Biden’s former business dealings with Ukraine and China are not new developments, but they bubbled back up after Biden dismissed China’s threat at a May campaign event. He said:

China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man. They can’t even figure out how to deal with the fact that they have this great division between the China Sea and the mountains in the East. I mean in the West. They can’t figure out how they are going to deal with the corruption that exists within the system. I mean, you know, they’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what: they’re not competition for us.

After immense backlash, Biden softened his tone.