Raising concerns over the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) threat to American national security, the US State Department on Saturday (local time) have listed over 80 Chinese companies that are listed on the US stock exchange. The US retail investors have been investing unknowingly in these Chinese companies that are involved in both civilian and military production, the State Department said.
According to an official statement issued by the State Department, “The Chinese Communist Party’s threat to American national security extends into our financial markets and impacts American investors. Many major stock and bond indices developed by index providers, like MSCI and FTSE, include malign People’s Republic of China (PRC) companies, listed on the Department of Commerce Entity List and/or the Department of Defense List of Communist Chinese military companies. The money flowing into these index funds – often passively, by US retail investors – supports Chinese companies involved in both civilian and military production.”
It further said that some of these companies produce technologies for “surveillance of civilians and repression of human rights”, as is the case of “Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang, China”, as well as in other repressive regimes, such as in Iran and Venezuela.
Some of the companies named in the list include — China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, Aviation Industry Corporation of China, China State Shipbuilding Corporation,Huawei Technologies, China Spacesat, AVIC International Holdings Ltd., Xi’an ChenXi Aviation Technology Corp. Ltd.
“As of June 2020, at least 22 of the 31 parent-level PRC military companies had affiliates’ securities included on a major securities index, including at least 68 distinct affiliate-level securities issuers; at least 13 PRC firms on the Entity List had affiliates or parent companies included in the MSCI or FTSE stock indices; and the MSCI emerging market index included 230 A-shares Chinese stocks incorporated on the mainland, quoted in renminbi, and listed on Chinese Communist Party-controlled Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges,” the State Department said.
This list comes amid deteriorating relations between the US and China.
On Friday, the US terminated five programmes that were disguised as “cultural exchanges”, with China as they are “fully funded and operated by the PRC government as soft power propaganda tools”.
On December 3, the US government had issued an order to block cotton imports from a Xinjiang governmental organisation in China due to the ongoing human rights abuses of Uyghurs.
