The pandemic is forcing countries around the world to rethink their relationships with China. The United States is no exception.
As of Monday, the United States had reported more than 760,000 infection cases, more than any other country in the world outside of China.
In New York, the country’s epicenter, businesses have shut down. The usually bustling Times Square remains empty.
What is New York’s role in the U.S.—China relationship?
Today, we’ll start with one case from Wall Street.
In an op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal last year, former Navy secretary Richard Spencer described such a scenario.
“Imagine retiring after a long career serving in uniform, only to learn that your savings all those years had helped fund advanced weapons systems for America’s adversaries.”
He was talking about the Thrift Savings Plan, or TSP—a pension fund for U.S. lawmakers, White House staff, and military members.
The board overseeing the fund had decided to put these servicemen’s retirement savings into an index, MSCI ACWI Ex-U.S. The index was developed by New York-based company MSCI, the world’s biggest stock index compiler.
The index includes the following Chinese companies:
AviChina Industry and Technology, an arm of Avic, which develops equipment and weapons for the Chinese air force. Its subsidiary was sanctioned by the U.S. government for helping Iran develop missiles.
Hangzhou Hikvision: a state-owned Chinese company that sells surveillance cameras to detainment camps in Xinjiang, where the regime detains millions of Uighur Muslims.
ZTE: a telecom giant that sells products to Iran and North Korea in violation of U.S. sanctions. It’s been accused of posing a risk to U.S. national security.
And Tencent, owner of Chinese social media app WeChat.
The app has been accused of helping the Chinese regime monitor dissidents and silence whistleblowers, especially during this pandemic.
A U.S. based non-profit is suing WeChat for stifling key information about the outbreak, leaving the world in dark and unprepared.
The non-profit said thousands of people have joined the lawsuit.
Those are the companies taking in retirement savings from 5 million U.S. federal workers.
Senators Marco Rubio and Jeanne Shaheen have introduced a bill to block the TSP from allowing it. The House has also introduced a similar bill.
And, the index is one of many developed by MSCI.
Last November, the company increased the weighing of China-A stock market shares from 5 percent to 20 percent in some of their indexes. This could lead to over 80 billion dollars in fresh American investment into China’s economy.
Others quickly followed suit. FTSE Russell, the world’s second-largest index company, announced in February that it would increase the weighting for Chinese stocks. Bloomberg also did something similar earlier.
The Wall Street Journal reported that MSCI’s decision “came under heavy pressure from the Chinese government, which tried to curtail the company’s business in the country.”
The report said the regime’s influence has put the independence of the index giant into question.
