President Trump’s February 21 America First Investment Policy (AFIP) memorandum is a bold new directive to protect American investors from financing China’s military rise. However, the effort is now facing its first major test: the planned $7.7 billion IPO of Contemporary Amperex Technologies Ltd. (CATL), a Chinese electric battery manufacturer with ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s military-industrial complex and allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
This IPO is shaping up as a defining moment for President Trump’s AFIP, which marks a landmark shift, asserting that American investment policy must prioritize national and economic security. It signals an end to the era in which U.S. capital markets served as an unwitting piggy bank for companies tied to the Chinese military and surveillance state.
“In this way,” the President said, “the PRC exploits United States investors to finance and advance the development and modernization of its military.”
CATL was recently added to the Pentagon’s “1260H List” of Chinese military companies operating in the United States. It has been linked to forced labor practices and serious human rights violations, making its access to U.S. capital markets deeply troubling from both a national security and human rights perspective.
Declaring that the United States will “use all necessary legal instruments to further deter United States persons from investing in the PRC’s military-industrial sector,” the President directed federal agencies to consider restrictions on investment types including private equity, venture capital, greenfield investments, corporate expansions, and publicly traded securities.
Notably, the President included a review of what are widely regarded as scandalous Variable Interest Entity structures “used by foreign-adversary companies to trade on United States exchanges, which limit the ownership rights and protections for United States investors.”
In short, the President left nothing off the table in addressing China’s exploitation of American capital (including via private equity funds) for its military, intelligence, and repression purposes.
President Trump’s Investment Doctrine
President Trump’s AFIP leaves no ambiguity. It directs federal agencies to consider restrictions across all types of capital flows—public markets, private equity, venture capital, and even greenfield expansions—for companies tied to the CCP. Importantly, it also calls for a review of the widespread use of Variable Interest Entities (VIEs)—legal structures that allow Chinese firms to sidestep U.S. securities laws and leave American investors with no ownership rights or legal protections.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has reaffirmed the administration’s intent to follow through, stating on Fox Business to Maria Bartiromo:
"[Would] ordinary Americans want…their money…being used to suppress the Uyghurs? . . . for Chinese military activities? . . . for Chinese surveillance opportunities? Of course not. So, we are going to continue investigating this and where necessary, block it."
On April 11, he added that everything is on the table—including blacklists and restrictions on pension funds and endowments.
"Everything is on the table. We are putting in process export controls for high value security related goods. We are talking about…export capital controls in terms of a blacklist of things – whether pension funds, endowments – investors should not be investing in to fund the Chinese military machine.”
Wall Street’s Reckoning
Despite the President’s clear directive, Wall Street titans JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs are now preparing to underwrite CATL’s Hong Kong IPO. This decision directly undermines AFIP and raises urgent questions about whether America’s financial elites will side with U.S. national security—or with the CCP.
Leading voices in the financial sector are beginning to speak out.
At aCongressional hearing on April 9th, and again in an interview on Fox Business on April 11, investor and Shark Tank personality Kevin O’Learyobjectedstrenuously to the unfairness of Chinese companies enjoying privileged, preferential access to U.S. capital markets without compliance with U.S. securities laws, notably with regard to Chinese enterprises stonewalling audits by the SEC’s Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. He also called out the use of variable interest entity agreements, stating, “At the end of the day, the American investor owns nothing and there is nothing stopping China from voiding out this agreement.” O’Leary called on Congress to “delist CCP-affiliated companies until there is parity of treatment for Western businesses in China.”
American Securities Association President and CEO Chris Iacovella echoed these concerns, calling for an end to U.S. index funds’ inclusion of Chinese A-Share securities (of wholly unregulated Chinese companies listed on the domestic Chinese stock exchanges) as well as for delisting Variable Interest Entities and companies on any U.S. official blacklists.
“If the U.S. deems one of the Chinese companies is doing nefarious things, those companies should be delisted.”
Congressional Pressure Builds
On April 24, House Select Committee on the CCP Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) issued letters to JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon and Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan urging them to withdraw from the CATL deal.
“Given CATL’s direct links to China’s military modernization, its complicity in the ongoing genocide in Xinjiang, and the grave risks it poses to U.S. national and economic security, we urge JPMorgan and Bank of America to withdraw from underwriting CATL’s upcoming IPO,” Moolenaar wrote.
If they refuse, the Committee has demanded a full accounting, with responses to 21 specific questions about the deal and its risks. The Committee has been a leader in highlighting CATL’s relationship with the CCP.
In an interview today with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business, Chairman Moolenaar said CATL is strongly linked to China’s People’s Liberation Army and forced labor, and said that the United States should not be funding China’s military rise.
Will Wall Street Comply—or Defy?
The stakes are enormous. This IPO is the first major test of whether Wall Street will align with the Trump administration’s AFIP—or continue to funnel billions into companies tied to forced labor, authoritarian surveillance, and Chinese military power.
CATL’s IPO isn’t just another financial transaction. It’s a national security issue. It’s a human rights issue. It’s a litmus test for whether America’s financial institutions will support the principles laid out by the President and upheld by Congress—or if they will choose short-term profits over long-term security.
As described in an April 2025Perspective authored by Elias Skold of the Prague Security Studies Institute, CATL recently was added to the Pentagon’s “1260H” list of Chinese military companies operating in the U.S and has been implicated in forced labor and human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
Former Reagan NSC financial warfare expert Roger Robinsonwarned, in an interview with Maria Bartiromo on March 13, that four of America’s foremost investment banks—JPMorgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs—are in the process of raising at least $7.7 billion for the company, despite the President’s clear directive embodied in his AFIP to prohibit any U.S. investment in Chinese military companies, such as CATL.
As noted in the PSSI Perspective, major U.S. asset managers are already heavily invested in CATL via its shares listed on the Shenzhen Exchange, holdings of over $1 billion each by BlackRock and JPMorgan.
As CPA has long argued, no country should be allowed to access American capital markets while refusing to allow reciprocal investment or transparency. And no American investor should be forced—through passive index funds or otherwise—to finance adversaries of the United States.
The question now is how will these underwriters and managers of the CATL IPO respond. Will these CEOs continue to skirt Presidential intent (via this Hong Kong listing) and pursue profit over compelling and risky national security, human rights, and “investor protection” considerations, or act in a manner consistent with Trump Administration policy and abandon their roles in this scandalous underwriting of the Chinese military machine? Time will tell—and shortly.
The American people, Congress, and the President have spoken. Now it’s Wall Street’s turn to decide.
MADE IN AMERICA.
CPA is the leading national, bipartisan organization exclusively representing domestic producers and workers across many industries and sectors of the U.S. economy.
Wall Street’s CATL IPO Test: Will They Stand with American Security or the CCP?
President Trump’s February 21 America First Investment Policy (AFIP) memorandum is a bold new directive to protect American investors from financing China’s military rise. However, the effort is now facing its first major test: the planned $7.7 billion IPO of Contemporary Amperex Technologies Ltd. (CATL), a Chinese electric battery manufacturer with ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s military-industrial complex and allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
This IPO is shaping up as a defining moment for President Trump’s AFIP, which marks a landmark shift, asserting that American investment policy must prioritize national and economic security. It signals an end to the era in which U.S. capital markets served as an unwitting piggy bank for companies tied to the Chinese military and surveillance state.
“In this way,” the President said, “the PRC exploits United States investors to finance and advance the development and modernization of its military.”
CATL was recently added to the Pentagon’s “1260H List” of Chinese military companies operating in the United States. It has been linked to forced labor practices and serious human rights violations, making its access to U.S. capital markets deeply troubling from both a national security and human rights perspective.
Declaring that the United States will “use all necessary legal instruments to further deter United States persons from investing in the PRC’s military-industrial sector,” the President directed federal agencies to consider restrictions on investment types including private equity, venture capital, greenfield investments, corporate expansions, and publicly traded securities.
Notably, the President included a review of what are widely regarded as scandalous Variable Interest Entity structures “used by foreign-adversary companies to trade on United States exchanges, which limit the ownership rights and protections for United States investors.”
In short, the President left nothing off the table in addressing China’s exploitation of American capital (including via private equity funds) for its military, intelligence, and repression purposes.
President Trump’s Investment Doctrine
President Trump’s AFIP leaves no ambiguity. It directs federal agencies to consider restrictions across all types of capital flows—public markets, private equity, venture capital, and even greenfield expansions—for companies tied to the CCP. Importantly, it also calls for a review of the widespread use of Variable Interest Entities (VIEs)—legal structures that allow Chinese firms to sidestep U.S. securities laws and leave American investors with no ownership rights or legal protections.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has reaffirmed the administration’s intent to follow through, stating on Fox Business to Maria Bartiromo:
On April 11, he added that everything is on the table—including blacklists and restrictions on pension funds and endowments.
Wall Street’s Reckoning
Despite the President’s clear directive, Wall Street titans JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs are now preparing to underwrite CATL’s Hong Kong IPO. This decision directly undermines AFIP and raises urgent questions about whether America’s financial elites will side with U.S. national security—or with the CCP.
Leading voices in the financial sector are beginning to speak out.
At a Congressional hearing on April 9th, and again in an interview on Fox Business on April 11, investor and Shark Tank personality Kevin O’Leary objected strenuously to the unfairness of Chinese companies enjoying privileged, preferential access to U.S. capital markets without compliance with U.S. securities laws, notably with regard to Chinese enterprises stonewalling audits by the SEC’s Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. He also called out the use of variable interest entity agreements, stating, “At the end of the day, the American investor owns nothing and there is nothing stopping China from voiding out this agreement.” O’Leary called on Congress to “delist CCP-affiliated companies until there is parity of treatment for Western businesses in China.”
American Securities Association President and CEO Chris Iacovella echoed these concerns, calling for an end to U.S. index funds’ inclusion of Chinese A-Share securities (of wholly unregulated Chinese companies listed on the domestic Chinese stock exchanges) as well as for delisting Variable Interest Entities and companies on any U.S. official blacklists.
Even BlackRock Chairman Larry Fink acknowledged:
Congressional Pressure Builds
On April 24, House Select Committee on the CCP Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) issued letters to JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon and Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan urging them to withdraw from the CATL deal.
If they refuse, the Committee has demanded a full accounting, with responses to 21 specific questions about the deal and its risks. The Committee has been a leader in highlighting CATL’s relationship with the CCP.
In an interview today with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business, Chairman Moolenaar said CATL is strongly linked to China’s People’s Liberation Army and forced labor, and said that the United States should not be funding China’s military rise.
Will Wall Street Comply—or Defy?
The stakes are enormous. This IPO is the first major test of whether Wall Street will align with the Trump administration’s AFIP—or continue to funnel billions into companies tied to forced labor, authoritarian surveillance, and Chinese military power.
CATL’s IPO isn’t just another financial transaction. It’s a national security issue. It’s a human rights issue. It’s a litmus test for whether America’s financial institutions will support the principles laid out by the President and upheld by Congress—or if they will choose short-term profits over long-term security.
As described in an April 2025 Perspective authored by Elias Skold of the Prague Security Studies Institute, CATL recently was added to the Pentagon’s “1260H” list of Chinese military companies operating in the U.S and has been implicated in forced labor and human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
Former Reagan NSC financial warfare expert Roger Robinson warned, in an interview with Maria Bartiromo on March 13, that four of America’s foremost investment banks—JPMorgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs—are in the process of raising at least $7.7 billion for the company, despite the President’s clear directive embodied in his AFIP to prohibit any U.S. investment in Chinese military companies, such as CATL.
As noted in the PSSI Perspective, major U.S. asset managers are already heavily invested in CATL via its shares listed on the Shenzhen Exchange, holdings of over $1 billion each by BlackRock and JPMorgan.
As CPA has long argued, no country should be allowed to access American capital markets while refusing to allow reciprocal investment or transparency. And no American investor should be forced—through passive index funds or otherwise—to finance adversaries of the United States.
The question now is how will these underwriters and managers of the CATL IPO respond. Will these CEOs continue to skirt Presidential intent (via this Hong Kong listing) and pursue profit over compelling and risky national security, human rights, and “investor protection” considerations, or act in a manner consistent with Trump Administration policy and abandon their roles in this scandalous underwriting of the Chinese military machine? Time will tell—and shortly.
The American people, Congress, and the President have spoken. Now it’s Wall Street’s turn to decide.
MADE IN AMERICA.
CPA is the leading national, bipartisan organization exclusively representing domestic producers and workers across many industries and sectors of the U.S. economy.
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