Some Pennsylvania state legislators are examining the possibility of divesting state funds from being invested in Communist China after doing just that last year for some companies in Russia and Belarus. It's about time; hopefully, this will happen, and more states will follow suit.
Though no draft language is yet available, Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Chambersburg, has circulated a legislative memo to divest the state of its connections to the Chinese Communist Party.
“For far too long, Pennsylvania has invested hundreds of millions in government funds to a regime that continues to trample on human rights,” Mastriano wrote, referencing persecution of the Uyghurs and other Muslims in China, as well as the erosion of self-rule in Hong Kong, abuses in Tibet, and undermining of democracy in Taiwan.
China’s failure to prevent fentanyl from leaving its shores for America, too, drew his ire.
“It is far past time to separate our state funds from companies controlled by the CCP,” Mastriano said.
You can read Senator Mastriano's memo here.
This would be a good move and indeed is long overdue; China is not a friend to the United States, its actions have been increasingly hostile under Chairman Xi, and it's hard to understand why any American taxpayer dollars would be invested in the People's Republic. It's important to note that there are no truly private companies in China; investments made there go either to companies that are controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or are owned outright by the Chinese government - that is to say, the CCP.
A key Pennsylvania official is down with the change:
...Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity was open to the change.
“I fully support divesting state assets from companies domiciled in China,” Garrity said. “Because of serious concerns related to geopolitical risk and human rights abuses, I directed my investment team to divest all of Treasury’s holdings in China in the first half of 2022. That process is complete. I believe it would be smart to do the same across all Commonwealth funds.”
In point of fact, it's hard to see why any state government would be investing taxpayer dollars overseas at all; "Buy American" used to be an accepted practice in government spending at any level. (Remember when motorcycle cops rode Harley-Davidsons?) Surely, state pension funds and the like can find on-shore investments that will meet their capital growth requirements. Yes, that's populism, and yes, that's in part what Donald Trump ran on in 2016. But it's also good sense to avoid sending money to unfriendly powers that have global ambitions and are willing to do awful things to realize those ambitions.
But China? That's even more egregious. China is a country that puts on a happy face but at its heart - that heart being the CCP - it is not a friend of the United States, nor even to its own population. Listing China's sins of late would take a while, but they include trafficking in fentanyl, intellectual property theft, mass arrests, and incarceration of minority groups (China's treatment of their Uyghur minority is particularly egregious, although you wouldn't know it from listening to the United Nations or the legacy media).
What may be most important is the fact that China is falling off a demographic cliff. That's a recipe for desperation, desperate men will often do desperate things, and when desperate men are armed with nuclear weapons...
It's also important to note that Chinese culture today is rife with fraud and deceit, even among their own people:
In short, China can't be trusted. Their interests run counter to ours. There's no reason for any level of American government to be investing taxpayer dollars in the People's Republic; Pennsylvania should pass this proposal forthwith, and the other states, as well as Washington, D.C., should do likewise. Let's put the squeeze on the CCP for once.
FLASHBACK: Read more RedState pieces on China and its unfriendly actions at the links below.
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