Mike Gallagher, Wisconsin Representative and Chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), recently addressed the issue of Americans unknowingly funding activities of the CCP without their consent or awareness. Gallagher highlighted the necessity for increased efforts to prevent such occurrences.
"Do you want your pension paying for China’s aircraft carriers? These aren’t hypothetical questions," Gallagher said. "Millions of Americans have become financial backers of the CCP without knowing it. "
In a recent opinion piece in The Washington Post, Rep. Gallagher points out the discovery that he and Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois Rep. and Ranking Member on the House Select Committee on the CCP, made on various firms in the United States. Just to name a couple, investment companies MSCI and BlackRock are affiliated with and financially support companies that "produce the CCP’s military aircraft, its aircraft carriers, its aerospace technology, its artillery shells, and even its advanced nuclear technology."
"Their savings are funding companies that build weapons for China’s People’s Liberation Army as well as companies involved in the ongoing genocide in Xinjiang," said Gallagher, referring to Americans' retirement savings, according to the Washington Post. "We are quite literally funding our own potential destruction — and the executive order, while well-intentioned, won’t stop it. It is up to Congress to erect strong, enduring guardrails around outbound investment in China."
Gallagher advocates for a more robust response to stop the current situation, given that the funding contributes to the CCP's military endeavors and inadvertently implicates the United States in activities involving forced labor and genocide. Earlier this month, the Biden Administration released an executive order to impose more strict regulations on particular U.S. investments in Chinese companies, particularly those tied to specific technologies. However, Gallagher asserts that further measures are imperative to safeguard United States interests concerning investments in China and national security, according to the Washington Post.
Representing Wisconsin's 8th District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2017, Congressman Gallagher previously served in the United States Marine Corps on active duty for several years, including deployments to Iraq. He holds degrees from Princeton University and Georgetown University, including a Ph.D. in International Relations. Gallagher is the Chairman of several Committees, including the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation, and more.
