Rubio to introduce bill to prevent U.S. pensions from investing in Chinese stocks

Rubio to introduce bill to prevent U.S. pensions from investing in Chinese stocks

Republican senator Marco Rubio said on Monday that he has plans to introduce legislation to block U.S. government pension funds from investing in Chinese stocks following a fund delayed a decision about tracking an index provided by MSCI Inc.

Rubio and a bipartisan group of senators have complained about specific companies included in the MSCI All Country World ex-U.S. Investable Market Index which gives a 7.5% weighting to Chinese firms.

U.S. lawmakers say that the targeted companies were “assisting in the Chines government’s military activities, espionage, and human rights abuses as well as many other Chinese companies that lack basic financial transparency.”

With the help of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB), they will reverse its decision to begin tracking the index for the Thrift Savings Plan’s (TSP) International Stock Fund.

The TSP is a retirement savings plan for federal employees and members of the military. As of July 2019, TSP assets have totaled around $599.5 billion.