Americans "Funding" Blacklisted Chinese Firms

A Congressional select committee is investigating BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager and MSCI, a big provider of index funds, to determine whether they are investing US cash in Chinese companies blacklisted by the US for security and human rights issues, Nicole Goodkind reported for CNN.

Photo Insert: The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party of the US House of Representatives sent letters to MSCI CEO Henry Fernandez and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink notifying both parties that it is investigating their investments in certain Chinese companies.

The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party of the US House of Representatives sent letters to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and MSCI CEO Henry Fernandez on Monday notifying both parties that it is investigating their investments in certain Chinese companies.

The committee said MSCI investments are now funding PRC companies that develop and build weapons for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)—the PRC’s military—and advance the CCP’s stated mission of technological supremacy,” wrote the Select Committee’s Chairman, Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, and its ranking member, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois.

By sending massive amounts of American money to companies linked to the Chinese military and human right abuses, the letter said, BlackRock and MSCI are “exacerbating an already significant national security threat and undermining American values.”

The Committee said it found that BlackRock had invested more than $429 million across five funds into Chinese companies that “act directly against the interests of the US.”

They also said that they identified at least 40 companies listed on the MSCI indexes that are designated on governmental red-flag lists.

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