US bill proposes to keep Chinese firms out of federal government retirement plan

Bipartisan legislation on Thrift Savings Plan targets investment in companies based in or closely tied to China, Iran, North Korea and Russia

No funding of ‘Beijing’s rise at the expense of our nation’s future prosperity and national security interests’, says co-sponsor Marco Rubio

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Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, believes it is “dangerous to prop up companies that threaten the interests of the US and our allies”. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

Published: 2:35am, 18 May 2023Updated: 3:02am, 18 May 2023

US lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill on Wednesday that would prevent the federal government’s retirement plan from holding Chinese companies, the latest in a series of laws and executive orders aimed at restricting the ability of US entities to fund technologies that could harm American national security.

Introduced by four Republican senators known for pushing anti-China initiatives – including Florida’s Marco Rubio and Missouri’s Josh Hawley – and Democratic senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the bill would block the Thrift Savings Plan from investing in firms based in or closely affiliated with China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.

The prohibited companies identified in the Taxpayers and Savers Protection (TSP) Act include not only those headquartered in, or listed on, an exchange of one of the four countries, but also those deriving more than half their revenues within the countries.

“Congress can’t sit on the sidelines and allow the TSP board to fund Beijing’s rise at the expense of our nation’s future prosperity and national security interests,” Rubio said in a joint announcement about the bill.

Shaheen echoed Rubio’s concern about national security, saying it was “dangerous to prop up companies that threaten the interests of the US and our allies, and it would be particularly egregious to do so with the hard-earned savings of federal workers, including our military and civilian workforce”.