California public pension fund invested in blacklisted Chinese companies: congressman
Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., joined "Mornings with Maria" to explain why he wrote a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom highlighting his concerns about the state public pension fund's chief investment officer having ties to China.
The fund has invested $3.1 billion in Chinese companies, some of which have been blacklisted by the U.S. government, Banks told FOX Business' Maria Bartiromo.
"If this were up to me, I would fire [Chief Investment Officer Yu Ben Meng] immediately because of these suspicious ties," he said. "We learned that Mr. Meng, who is the chief investment officer of CalPERS, was actually recruited to this position by the [Chinese Communist Party] through something called the Thousand Talents Program. Now he's denied it."
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CalPERS stands for the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the largest public pension fund in the nation.
"What is unusual is that many of these companies are companies that we've blacklisted, that make Chinese military equipment or are responsible for technologies like Hikvision, which is the equipment that's used by the Chinese for surveillance on the Uighur Muslim population that they've been abusing in their own country," Banks said.
The Commerce Department blacklisted Hikvision in October "for engaging in or enabling activities contrary to the foreign policy interests of the United States."
CalPERS defended Meng.
“This is a reprehensible attack on a U.S. citizen. We fully stand behind our Chief Investment Officer who came to CalPERS with a stellar international reputation,” a CalPERS spokeswoman told Reuters.
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