Chairman John Moolenaar of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party has sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressing concerns about Ivanhoe Atlantic, a company with substantial Chinese state-linked ownership. The letter addresses the U.S. State Department’s statements of support for Ivanhoe Atlantic’s multibillion-dollar rail project in Liberia, which could potentially receive funding from the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
Moolenaar’s letter points out that Ivanhoe Atlantic is significantly owned by entities connected to the Chinese government, including organizations linked to the United Front and firms that have been sanctioned or restricted by U.S. authorities. He warns that these relationships illustrate efforts by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to control critical mineral supply chains through indirect investments in foreign mining operations.
“China CITIC Bank Corporation (CITIC) and Zijin Mining Group Company Limited (Zijin) together hold roughly 40% ownership stakes in Ivanhoe Mines, a sister company of Ivanhoe in the Ivanhoe mining portfolio. CITIC is wholly owned by China’s Ministry of Finance, and in 2022 the Federal Communications Commission placed telecommunication services controlled by CITIC on the Covered List for posing ‘an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons.’ Zijin was added in 2025 to the ‘Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act’ (UFLPA) Entity List due to use of forced labor in China. CITIC and Zijin’s equity stakes in Ivanhoe exemplify how the CCP secures critical mineral supply chains through indirect, minority-share investments in foreign mining firms as part of the ‘Two Markets, Two Resources’ strategy to penetrate global markets,” writes Moolenaar.
The full text of Chairman Moolenaar's letter can be accessed online.
