A
genomics group
working to engineer super soldiers for the People’s Liberation Army. A
dronemaker
whose technology is used to monitor concentration camps. A
cloud computing service
whose facial recognition software could be adapted to target Uyghur Muslims. All three of these entities are effectively at the beck and call of the Chinese Communist Party. And all three have received billions of American dollars in the form of Wall Street investments.
In October, the Pentagon placed the first two,
BGI Group
and
DGI Sciences and Technologies
, on its list of Chinese military companies, rightly removing them from our stock exchanges. But the third, Alibaba, remains open to investment. In fact, financial analysts are
actively boosting it
. And it’s not alone — scattered across the world, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of CCP-controlled companies being strengthened and supported by U.S. capital.
This is a serious threat to our national security. It’s also a threat to our economy. Beijing’s ability to direct the internal operations of “private” Chinese firms at any time makes investing in those firms financially risky as well as ethically dubious. In recent years, corporate crackdowns by the CCP have cost the United States
hundreds of billions of dollars
.
It makes one thing clear: We never should have let Chinese firms list on our exchanges without following the same disclosure rules as our own companies. But the past is over and done with. What are we doing now to get the U.S. out of this perverse situation?
One bit of good news is that Congress has empowered regulators to remove suspicious Chinese firms from American markets with the
Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act
. Those removals could begin next year or perhaps sooner, if the House will vote on a Senate-passed bill to expedite the process.
Unfortunately, President Joe Biden will undermine those efforts if he succeeds at striking an
arrangement with Beijing
to keep Wall Street’s cash flowing to
China.
Meanwhile, the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board was on track to pour government employees’ retirement money into Beijing military affiliates before I
forced it
to reverse course. Unless compelled by Congress, it appears the executive branch will put corporate interests above the common good. It’s deeply concerning and an embarrassment to the nation.
Fortunately, countering China is one of the few areas where Congress may find common ground in the coming years. If policymakers get their act together, there is hope that we can make real progress toward disentanglement from Beijing.
One bill that Congress should pass immediately is my
American Financial Markets Integrity and Security Act
, which would prohibit Americans from investing in any companies listed on the Department of Commerce Entity List or the Department of Defense’s list of Chinese military companies. Another is my
Countering Corporate Corruption in China Act
, which would penalize firms aiding or excusing CCP abuses. Finally, Congress should pass the
No Chinese Communist SURPRISE Parties Act
to require financial disclosures warning of the presence of Communist Party cells in corporations, as well as the
Turn OFF THE TAP Act
to prevent federal funds from further enriching Beijing.
All of these bills would use the power of the state to stop Americans from supporting a genocidal regime and undermining U.S. interests. But policymakers need not only use a stick — we should also be able to use a carrot, rewarding companies that reinvest close to home with tax benefits, as my
MMEDS Act
would do for pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Washington does not need to adopt Beijing’s own model of micromanaging the economy nor should it. But the status quo, in which our greatest geopolitical adversaries are supported by billions of U.S. dollars, is simply unacceptable. We need a new investment framework to align financial interests with the national interest. Otherwise, we will be responsible for our own downfall.
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Marco Rubio is Florida’s senior U.S. senator.
