July 15, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging the Trump administration Labor Department to block private pension investment in Chinese securities following the blocking of federal employee pension investment in China:
“The President, National Security Advisor, Director of the National Economic Council and the Department of Labor Secretary have all made it clear that investments in non-transparent, Chinese state-owned company securities are too risky and dangerous for federal employee retirement investing. The President’s statement yesterday effectively ending the Obama-Biden China exemption to investment transparency rules on U.S. exchanges is an important step to protecting American investors from Chinese vapor companies. Now, the administration and state governments need to take a series of simple but important steps to protect retirement investors and pensions from foreign investments that do not conform to basic auditing standards.
“First, the Labor Department should immediately begin by imposing these transparency rules on private pensions and investments. Second, the Labor Department should also divest all funds in non-transparent investments under the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. Third, federal employee defined benefit plans should be directed to divest from non-transparent assets as well. Fourth, state governors and financial officers should take immediate action to divest state employee pension funds from these same unsuitable assets.
“If an individual investor wishes to put their money into Chinese state-owned companies on the Shanghai Composite Index, that is a choice with all the risks that choice entails. However, retirement funds are held to a higher standard under the law and given the administration’s recognition that Chinese assets do not conform to that standard it would be irresponsible for state officials to not follow suit to protect their employees’ future financial security, too.
“Let me be clear, this is not only a fiduciarily sound approach but a morally necessary one as well as investing in Chinese companies that engage in child and slave labor effectively makes our nation’s pensioners involuntary slave owners. This is repugnant and it must end.”
Attachments:
“If risky Chinese investments are unsuitable for federal pensioners, they’re unsuitable for private pensioners, too.” By Rick Manning, July 10, 2020 at http://dailytorch.com/2020/07/if-risky-chinese-investments-are-unsuitable-for-federal-pensioners-theyre-unsuitable-for-private-pensioners-too/
Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1 or at media@limitgov.org.
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