Trump Weighs China Stock Ban for $50 Billion of Federal Savings
April 30, 2020, 9:31 PM EDT
- Move comes after months of pressure from concerned lawmakers
- Action could come in the form of executive order, source says
The Thrift Savings Plan — the federal government’s retirement savings fund —
is scheduled to transfer roughly $50 billion of its international fund to mirror an MSCI All Country World Index, which captures emerging markets, including China.
The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board
overseeing the fund made a decision in 2017 that the money should be moved by mid-2020. Opponents of the transfer in recent weeks have engaged in a last-minute effort to stop it.
Blacklist
The Commerce Department on Monday put a number of Chinese entities
— including surveillance technology company Hikvision —
on an export blacklist that prohibits American firms from doing business with them unless they have a U.S. government license to do so.
Hikvision, which is listed on the MSCI All Country World index,
has been cited by Trump’s advisers as one of several Chinese companies that presents a threat to American investors.
White House Weighs Limits on U.S. Portfolio Flows Into China – Bloomberg
EXCLUSIVE: White House to block federal pension fund from expanding China investments
WASHINGTON (SBG) –
President Trump has instructed top aides to move quickly to rein in a federal pension fund before it expands its investment portfolio, later this year,
to include Chinese-held entities that U.S. officials believe to be tied directly to the Chinese military and to the country’s global intelligence apparatus, sources said.
Policymakers Concerned About U.S. Pension and Service Member Capital Funding Chinese Military In 2019,
some U.S. senators demanded that the massive Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), which is overseen by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board,
to exclude Chinese equity investments,
as the giant pool of capital will indirectly invest in these stocks through an index.
U.S. President Trump gave orders to his aides to rein
SWFI