WASHINGTON — The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) today joined military leaders, human rights organizations, and national security experts in urging members of the United States Senate to include amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 that prohibits the retirement savings of all federal employees, including Members of the Armed Forces, from being invested in China. Recently, CPA participated in a webinar titled, Financing the “Rope”: Should Federal Employees be Giving the CCP their Pension Funds?, that discusses the risks of TSP investment in China.
Despite bipartisan, bicameral support, the House failed to include the Taxpayers and Savers Protection (TSP) Act, which was offered as an amendment. The TSP Act has been introduced by Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate, and it would ban the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) from steering federal employee retirement funds in the TSP to China. Read CPA’s Myths vs Facts on the TSP Act here.
Opponents of the TSP Act have falsely claimed that it is unnecessary as Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) could issue rules governing the TSP, as well as private sector investment, to restrict or ban all U.S. investment in China. OFAC can and should take strong action to prevent all U.S. capital market investment in Chinese companies. However, this does not preclude Congress from taking action now to ensure that federal employees, including members of the U.S. Armed Forces, are not unwittingly investing in Chinese companies that the U.S. government has identified as being national security risks and involved in the CCP’s genocide, use of forced labor, and modernization of the People’s Liberation Army.
According to data published by CPA, and that was reported on by The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek, the TSP has serious exposure to companies owned or controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). As such, “[m]illions of federal employees can invest in Chinese companies sanctioned by the U.S. government via its flagship retirement plan, even though these companies have been branded a danger to national security or are accused of profiting from forced labor or other human rights abuses.”
Shockingly, the FRTIB, which is in charge of managing the TSP, admitted publicly that it has not conducted any due diligence to evaluate whether the TSP and the products it offers in its Mutual Fund Window include Chinese-owned entities that pose national security risks or fund Chinese companies engaged in human rights violations.
“The Thrift Savings Plan has been profiting off of the suffering of the Uyghur people and others who struggle under China’s forced labor industry for too long. The TSP has done so without the knowledge and consent of its own participants, enabled by the apathy of the FRTIB. We urge the Senate to take amendment 523 to a floor vote. Federal employees and servicemen should not be left to foot the bill for this humanitarian crisis. ” – VOC President, Ambassador Andrew Bremberg
“The Senate has a duty to protect U.S. national security and the interests of millions of federal employees that are unwittingly funding America’s foremost adversary. It is unconscionable that among the mutual funds made available via the TSP website are some 22 China-only funds and that zero diligence or material risk disclosure has taken place with respect to these and the hundreds of other funds likely including Chinese companies.” — Roger W. Robinson, Jr., former Chairman of the congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission
“The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has a national strategic goal to be the dominant military force on the planet and using the TSP to actively fund that goal, including the buildup and modernization of the PLA Navy, would be a major national security disaster. Over the last two decades, there has been a surge of warship building by the PRC, which has outproduced the U.S. Navy in the number of warships, submarines, and aircraft that operate over, on, and under the sea. The fact that the U.S. government, via the TSP, would invest government retirement funds in the PRC is a serious risk to our national security and something the U.S. Congress must prevent from ever occurring.” — Captain James E. Fanell, U.S. Navy (Retired)
“The TSP is a plan for not only the U.S. military, but all government employees. That means the FRTIB is using our money to finance the greatest threat in the world today facing America. Congress cannot allow this to continue, which is why the Senate must act immediately to ensure the NDAA neutralizes this threat.” — Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William G. Boykin
“The Senate should rectify the House’s failure and seize this important opportunity to ban federal retirement savings from flowing to CCP companies that are directly aiding and abetting Beijing’s military modernization, surveillance state, and other malign activities. There is strong bipartisan, bicameral support for this legislation. The Senate should insist on holding a floor vote on the TSP Act during this week’s consideration of the NDAA.”— Zach Mottl, Chairman of CPA
Ambassador Andrew Bremberg is the President of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Previously Ambassador Bremberg served as the Representative of the United States to the Office of the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva. VOC is an educational, research, and human rights nonprofit organization devoted to commemorating the more than 100 million victims of communism around the world and to pursuing the freedom of those still living under totalitarian regimes.
Roger Robinson, Jr. is an advisor to the Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA), former National Security Council (NSC) Senior Director of International Economic Affairs for President Ronald Reagan, and former Chairman of the Congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
Captain James E. Fanell, U.S. Navy (Retired), served as a career naval intelligence officer whose positions included the senior intelligence officer for China at the Office of Naval Intelligence and the chief of intelligence for CTF-70, 7th Fleet, and the U.S. Pacific Fleet. He retired from the Navy in 2015 and currently is a government fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy in Geneva, Switzerland.
Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William G. Boykin serves as Family Research Council’s Executive Vice President. He was one of the original members of the U.S. Army’s Delta Force. He was privileged to ultimately command these elite warriors in combat operations. Later, William Boykin commanded all the Army’s Green Berets as well as the Special Warfare Center and School. In all, Lt. Gen. Boykin spent 36 years in the army, serving his last four years as the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence.
