Chinese checkmate
Too much gov’t $$ invested: White House
Top White House officials are moving to ensure that the US has less money invested in Chinese equities as the Communist nation faces the steep fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow and national security adviser Robert O’Brien penned a letter to Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia on Monday stating that the Thrift Savings Plan, a federal employee retirement fund, should not have any money invested in Chinese equities, according to Fox Business.
The little-known $557 billion federal retirement program for government employees and military members currently invests about $4 billion in Chinese assets, the letter states.
The letter argues that the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board is “departing
from the Board’s established index for the International Stock Investment Fund (I Fund) to track one that maintains Chinese equities is risky and unjustified,” before directly linking China’s handling of the pandemic to why investment in the country is discouraged.
Scalia included the letter when he wrote to Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board Chairman Michael Kennedy, ordering him to “immediately halt” any investments in Chinese funds.
White House officials began moving to seize control of the board in recent days, with President Trump nominating three members to replace the majority of the board on Monday, according to The Washington Post.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also control two seats on the five-member board, but they have not replaced those serving.
The move to retake control of the board came out of a desire by some White House aides to avoid Chinese companies seeing any US capital by being included in an index fund with access to a flow of billions of dollars.