BlackRock is getting called out yet again on its love affair with all things China. Other than Vanguard, no other Wall Street firm has more money in Chinese companies – including defense contractors that America’s largest money manager had to dump starting August 2 per President Biden’s Executive Order.
And now, an ad campaign run by a group called the Consumers First Initiative is going to make that relationship even more famous. It’s running ads highlighting BlackRock’s support of the CCP.
The ad, titled “Betting on China,” will air nationally on cable television and business networks. There will also be billboards throughout New York City and a targeted digital component. Accompanying the ad rollout is a new website, BlackRockLovesChina.com, which features billboard art, the ad itself, and a number of articles about BlackRock and China.
“We cannot let executives like Larry Fink try and tell Americans how to live while simultaneously cozying up to one of the world’s leading human rights abusers,” said Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, the NGO behind the Consumers First Initiative.
“By putting BlackRock’s shady dealings out in the open for all to see, we’re sending a message that companies won’t get away with taking advantage of hard-working Americans. Any company trying to use woke politics to mask their misdeeds should see this campaign and know they could be next,” Hild said in a statement on Wednesday.
BlackRock’s Larry Fink was called out last week by CNBC’s Squawk Box co-host Joe Kernan. For all of Fink’s talk about climate change, how, Kernen asked, did he square being the largest U.S. investor in the worst polluting nation in the world? Fink’s response was that he would help Chinese people invest for their retirement and that he talks to investors, and the government, about the need to make investments in post-fossil fuel energy sectors.
“The idea that an American company is taking billions of dollars and using it to bet on China’s success is extremely concerning,” said Hild. “We can’t allow this to continue. Funneling Americans’ hard-earned retirement savings to China is unsafe from both a national security and financial perspective.”
