Upon being named chairman of the new GOP-led China task force, Rep. Mike McCaul’s personal finances with ties to the country have come under scrutiny.
An April congressional form for McCaul, a Texas Republican, disclosed the purchase of $50,000 to $100,000 worth of shares in Chinese tech company Tencent Holdings earlier this year, according to a report by Politico.
McCaul is an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party and has even described the company as a threat to U.S. national security.
An attorney for McCaul said the shares did not belong to the congressman and that McCaul’s wife has assets she solely owns, and a third-party manager made the purchase without her guidance.
Tencent oversees China’s leading social messaging platform, WeChat. A new study reported by the Financial Times said the company had been using surveillance methods for political content posted by foreign accounts to train its censorship algorithms for domestic users.
As chairman of the new China Task Force, McCaul is expected to lead 14 Republican colleagues in “developing legislative solutions to address the Chinese Communist Party’s malign global agenda.”
“This is the number one issue not only today but for the future,” McCaul said in a statement. “Our task force will hit the ground running to develop new and enduring policy solutions that, among others, enhance our economic strength and create jobs, protect our national security, rethink our supply chains and grow our competitive edge in technology.”
McCaul also serves as ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
