The primary global adversary of the United States of America is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Millions of the CCP’s own people and members of ethnic minorities are subject to the brutal and totalitarian government that practices genocide. However, Americans don’t appear to be able to accept the fact that the CCP wants to supplant and weaken the United States.
For example, despite the Biden White House’s inadequate attempts at divestment, American pension funds continue to make significant investments in China, according to the Epoch Times. Why are American organizations so committed to supporting and making money off of the nefarious CCP?
“Recent data from a nonpartisan trade organization called Future Union shows that over the previous three years that concluded on June 30, American public pensions had invested around $68 billion. According to the organization’s study, at least one public pension fund across 72 pension funds in 42 states has made investments in China or Hong Kong using a variety of funds, including ones in sensitive industries. In the last 12 months, 39% of respondents made investments.”
The leading offenders are, predictably, New York and the People’s Republic of Commiefornia, er, California. According to the Epoch Times, the New York State Common Retirement Fund (NYSCRF) made the greatest financial commitment for public pension funds, totaling $8.392 billion. In second and third place, respectively, were the California State Teachers Retirement System ($5.559 billion) and the California Public Employees Retirement System ($7.8 billion). Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Washington are among the other states that have funds invested in China.
Regretfully, as the Epoch Times noted, a number of state and municipal public pension systems are searching for answers due to unfunded obligations of billions of dollars.
“The “Financial State of Cities,” a Truth in Accounting study, revealed that post-employment benefits, including health care, topped $135 billion and municipal pension debt came to about $176 billion.”
According to Epoch Times, academic endowments at universities including the University of California, the University of Texas, and the University of Michigan have also shifted to Chinese investment. In the meantime, among the foundations with investments in Chinese private funds were the “MacArthur Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.”
Meanwhile, the Biden White House at least pretended to acknowledge the problem with Chinese investments. According to Epoch Times, “the present government issued an executive order restricting investment in some areas of China, notably its technological industry, which encompasses semiconductors, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence, this past summer.” Not surprisingly, given Biden’s history of courting China and accepting Chinese funding, officials and watchers of the market claim that federal efforts are insufficient.
In the end, Future Union (via Epoch) did a great job of summarizing the problem. “In exchange for protecting wealth under legitimate tax status exemptions, the U.S. tax system offers exceptional benefits to incentivize affluent people and businesses to retain generous giving preferences and risk-taking,” the paper said. “By making investments in nations of concern like China, many of these charitable organizations have betrayed the interests of our nation and taken immoral actions.”
