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By Rachel Dobkin
Weekend Reporter
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Donald Trump Jr. has drawn attention to a tax break that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' reportedly gave to a Chinese company, but DeSantis pointed the finger elsewhere.
DeSantis, who is running against Donald Trump for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election, gave JinkoSolar, a Chinese solar panel manufacturer, $90,000 in 2020 through his urban job tax credit program, according to Florida's Department of Economic Opportunity. JinkoSolar was eligible for the tax relief because it created 90 jobs in Duval County that year.
The governor has campaigned on strict anti-China policies, signing a series of laws in May aimed at restricting Chinese influence and preventing China from gaining more economic power in Florida. Also in May, although an unrelated event, JinkoSolar's factory in Jacksonville was raided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as part of a federal investigation.
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Donald Trump Jr. took to X, formerly Twitter, on Friday after the Washington Examiner broke the story, writing in a post: "Yikes!"
Newsweek reached out to DeSantis' office and Donald Trump Jr. via email for comment.
Rose Hebert, a spokeswoman for Florida's Department of Commerce, which works in tandem with the Department of Economic Opportunity on the tax program, told Newsweek that DeSantis' administration was merely continuing the work of the previous administration under Republican Rick Scott.
"As we have made explicitly clear, this company was recruited by the Scott Administration and all incentives they received were a result of that recruitment," Hebert said.
"Further, when the Governor signed HB5 in 2023, he prohibited all Chinese companies (and any company from the 7 foreign countries of concern in Florida law) from ever receiving state incentives in Florida," Hebert continued.
This is not the first time DeSantis' has been accused of getting involved with Chinese business in Florida. In early November, the Sun Sentinel's editorial board wrote an opinion piece addressing a link between DeSantis' administration and a Chinese-owned aviation company, a link DeSantis doesn't agree with.
A few weeks before DeSantis signed the series of anti-China laws in May, his administration signed multimillion-dollar contracts to lease a twin-engine jet to locate and detain undocumented immigrants, particularly in the Florida Keys area, the Sun Sentinel, reported.
The jet, a Diamond DA62, was made by Austrian firm Diamond Aircraft, which in 2017 was bought by Wanfeng Aviation Industry Co., whose headquarters are in China, the newspaper wrote.
The newspaper also obtained the state's one-year contract with the Bank of Utah, which is a trustee for the aircraft's owners. According to state records, Florida will end up paying $2 million by next May.
Florida's Division of Emergency Management (DEM) previously told Newsweek: "The plane that FDEM leased was from the Bank of Utah and was manufactured in Austria, not China. It is owned by North Sea Aviation Services in Belgium. The Division has in no way sent a nickel to China."
Update 12/2/23, 10:26 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to include comment from Hebert.
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