- The report says US venture capitalist firms have helped ‘build and strengthen’ China’s authoritarian regime
- US venture capital funds the ‘production of weapons systems designed to kill Americans and advance China’s warfighting capabilities’
- And worst of all, American families are “unknowingly contributing” and “fueling our own destruction.”
Top lawmakers released a bombshell report Thursday revealing how billions of U.S. dollars are flowing into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party — and used to support their military and genocidal efforts.
The report states that US venture capitalist companies have contributed to “building and strengthening” China’s authoritarian regime in several ways.
More than $3 billion was invested in Chinese artificial intelligence and semiconductor companies by five U.S. venture capitalists between 2001 and 2023, according to the House China Select Committee.
The committee launched an investigation last summer into the finances of five companies: Sequoia Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Walden International, GSR Ventures and GGV Capital.
Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., warn in the report that their investigation “only scratches the surface of the danger that U.S. investments in Chinese industry pose to our national security.”
And billions more than what they uncovered could flow from Americans to Chinese companies.
The report states that US venture capitalist companies have contributed to “building and strengthening” China’s authoritarian regime in several ways.
Last summer, the committee launched an investigation into the finances of companies Sequoia Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Walden International, GSR Ventures and GGV Capital
The funds will be used to “support the PRC’s military, digital authoritarianism and efforts to develop technological supremacy and undermine U.S. technological leadership.”
The findings of the six-month investigation showed that these five companies also “sent more than US$1.9 billion to AI companies in the PRC and US$1 billion to more than 150 semiconductor companies in the PRC.”
In addition, they “invested more than $130 million in Chinese AI companies that the US government blacklisted for supporting the Chinese Communist Party’s genocide and human rights abuses.”
In fact, Sequoia Capital has poured more than $1 billion into helping CCP-controlled company Bytedance, TikTok’s parent company, as it sought to expand abroad, lawmakers say.
“Bytedance has not only worked with China’s Ministry of Public Security to address internal dissent within China, but according to the FBI in sworn testimony, it also has the ability to control the software on millions of U.S. devices through TikTok,” they say . to write.
And worst of all, American families are “unknowingly contributing,” they say.
‘All five companies the Select Committee examined have US-based investors, limited partners including institutional entities such as university endowments, family offices and pension funds.’
The lawmakers said that Americans whose retirement accounts are invested in these five venture capital firms are “contributing a portion of their hard-earned salaries to further the authoritarian ambitions of the Chinese Communist Party.”
China now also has the ability to hold major US executives and companies ‘hostage’, the report warns.
It also critically weakens the United States’ own economic sovereignty and security.
And American venture capital is financing the “production of weapons systems designed to kill Americans and advance China’s warfighting capabilities.”
Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., warn in the report that their investigation “only scratches the surface of the danger that U.S. investments in Chinese industry pose to our national security.”
As a result, lawmakers say the “status quo” is “unsustainable” and urge the government to take several steps to immediately stem the flow of money into China’s hands.
The first recommendation is to limit U.S. investments in “government-sanctioned or red-flagged entities.”
Second, lawmakers say legislation should be implemented to further limit any “outbound investments” in areas that overlap with Chinese technologies, military capabilities and human rights abuses.