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US firms MSCI, BlackRock ‘funnelled’ billions to Chinese companies accused of human rights abuses: panel
- World’s foremost index provider alone channelled US$3.7 billion into entities boosting People’s Liberation Army, says congressional report
- Named mainland companies include state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China, BGI Group and Qihoo 360
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Khushboo Razdanin Washington
Major US financial institutions poured billions of dollars worth of Americans’ “life savings” and other investments into some 60 Chinese companies that Washington accuses of committing human rights abuses and fuelling China’s military, a congressional investigation has claimed.
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According to a report published on Thursday by the US House of Representatives’ select committee on China, Wall Street behemoths including MSCI, the world’s foremost index provider, and BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, facilitated the investment of more than US$6.5 billion into 63 mainland firms last year.
MSCI indexes alone channelled US$3.7 billion into entities that “develop advanced fighter jets and nuclear weapons” or create technology used to “perpetrate the ongoing genocide” against China’s Uygur minority, the panel concluded, while BlackRock invested at least US$1.9 billion.
The committee’s leaders – retiring Republican congressman Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin and Democratic congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois – did not issue their own statements on the findings.
But a press release attributed to the panel said the report examined “the broader US financial industry” while lamenting that the activities it documented were “not illegal” under existing American laws.
The Chinese entities included state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (Avic), an aerospace and defence conglomerate; genomics company BGI Group; and Qihoo 360, a software firm.
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