House China committee launches probe into investment firm BlackRock

The House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced an investigation into investment firm BlackRock on Tuesday.

In a Monday letter from committee Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) to BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink, the representatives alleged the investment firm is using its “unwitting” American customers’ finances to fund Chinese companies that “develop and build weapons for the People’s Liberation Army — the PRC’s military — and advance the CCP’s stated mission of technological supremacy.” The committee’s account posted the letter to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, alongside an announcement of the investigation Tuesday.

“It is unconscionable for any U.S. company to profit from investments that fuel the military advancement of America’s foremost foreign adversary and facilitate human rights abuses,” the letter read.

House Democrats and Republicans banded together to create the House select committee back in January, with a resolution for its formation passing at the time by a 365-65 vote. Its original foundation lay in a campaign promise Republicans made during the 2022 midterms in the event they regained control of the chamber.

“I’ve heard my colleagues on both sides say that the threat posed by Communist China is serious. I fully agree,” Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said on creating the committee at the time. “This is an issue that transcends political parties. And creating the select committee on China is our best avenue for addressing it.”