WASHINGTON — The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA), along with human rights groups, urged Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen to protect American retail investors and U.S. national security by implementing capital markets sanctions against Chinese companies pursuant to President Joe Biden’s Executive Order (EO) 14032. Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong., Hong Kong Watch, and Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation joined CPA in sending the letter. Read the full text of the letter here.
CPA supported this executive action, which established the OFAC Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List (NS-CMIC List) and expanded capital markets sanctions to include Chinese defense and related materiel sector companies, as well as Chinese companies that develop or use Chinese surveillance technology to facilitate repression or serious human rights abuses. However, since President Biden signed EO 14032, the Treasury Department has not added one Chinese company to the NS-CMIC List. Out of the 440 Chinese companies on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List, only four—less than 1 percent—appear on the NS-CMIC List.
“We are writing to bring to your and your Deputy’s attention the very troubling fact that since June 3, 2021 — the date that President Biden issued Executive Order (EO) 14032 — not one Chinese company has been added to the OFAC Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List (NS-CMIC List),” the letter states. “This is nothing short of astounding, as there have been many Chinese companies – a number of them already sanctioned by the U.S. via being placed on the Commerce Department’s Entity List or other designations – which have committed, or enabled, egregious human rights and national security abuses and urgently warrant being added to the NS-CMIC List.”
In June, CPA welcomed action by the Biden administration aimed at Chinese solar companies’ use of forced labor in Xinjiang that included the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) adding five Chinese companies to the Entity List in connection with participating in the practice of, accepting, or utilizing forced labor involving Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang.
“Take the case of the five Chinese polysilicon companies that were added to the Entity List on June 24, 2021, for engaging in forced labor against Muslims in Xinjiang,” the letter continues. “These Chinese companies were placed on the Entity List for trafficking in slave labor, and hence are, in effect, denied access to American equipment, technology, components and services. How can it then be judged as acceptable by the Treasury Department to have these same companies funded by unwitting American investors and imbued with the marketable prestige of being traded in the world’s deepest and most voluminous capital markets?”
“Madame Secretary, the protection of American retail investors, our national security, and the fundamental values of our nation are all at stake here,” the letter urges. “We understand the pressures you and your team face from Wall Street. However, the Treasury Department cannot put the profits and well-being of Wall Street and the Chinese Communist Party above the interests of American economic and national security. Capital markets sanctions are arguably the most fearsome and effective non-military deterrent and penalty vis a vis the Chinese Communist Party ever devised by our country.”
“We can no longer watch in good conscience as this exceptionally powerful policy tool languishes under your stewardship,” the letter concludes. “The hard-earned retirement and investment dollars of a large percentage of the American people are unwittingly underwriting genocide-enablers and other Chinese corporate human rights and national security abusers aiding the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign of evil. This is an empirically provable fact happening on your watch. You must take action to put an end to this now.”
Read the full text of the letter here.
