As state treasurer, Vivek Malek pushed Missouri's main retirement system to pull its investments from Chinese companies, making Missouri among the first nationally to do so. Now Malek is touting the Chinese divestment as he seeks reelection in an Aug. 6 Republican primary against challengers who also are denouncing financial connections to China.
The Missouri treasurer's race highlights a new facet of opposition to China, which has been cast as a top threat to the U.S. by many candidates seeking election this year. Indiana and Florida also have restricted their public pension funds from investing in certain Chinese companies. Similar legislation targeting public investments in foreign adversaries was vetoed in Arizona and proposed in Illinois and Oklahoma.
China ranks as the world's second-largest economy behind the U.S.
Between 2018 and 2022, U.S. public pension and university endowments invested about $146 billion in China, according to an analysis by Future Union , a nonprofit pro-democracy group led by venture capitalist Andrew King. The report said more than four-fifths of U.S. states have at least one public pension fund investing in China and Hong Kong,
"Frankly, there should be shame - more shame than there is - for continuing to have those investments at this point in time," said King, who asserts that China has used intellectual property from U.S. companies to make similar products that undercut market prices.
