US lawmakers, John Moolenaar and Rick Scott, have urged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to delist 25 US-listed Chinese groups, according to an article in the Financial Times. The targeted companies include Alibaba, Baidu, JD.com, Weibo, Pony.ai, Tencent Music and polysilicon producer Daqo New Energy Corp.
Moolenaar is the Republican chair of the House China committee, while Scott is the Republican chair of the Senate committee on ageing. Both lawmakers wrote to SEC chair Paul Atkins on May 2 (US time), urging the agency to take action against the US-listed firms, citing military links that risk US national security.
According to a letter seen by the Financial Times, Moolenaar and Scott stated that "these entities benefit from American investor capital while advancing the strategic objectives of the Chinese Communist party... supporting military modernisation and gross human rights violations."
The letter further asserts that the companies "also pose an unacceptable risk to American investors."
The lawmakers also stated that the groups, no matter how commercial they appeared, were "ultimately harnessed for nefarious state purposes". These companies were "not merely opaque" but were "actively integrated into the Chinese military and surveillance apparatus," they continued in their letter.
"The SEC can - and must - act," wrote Moolenaar and Scott in their letter.
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In response to queries from the Financial Times, the Chinese embassy in Washington said that Beijing opposed the US "overstretching the concept of national security, using national apparatus and long-arm jurisdiction to bring down Chinese companies".
"We oppose turning trade and technological issues into political weapons," said embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu.
As at end March, there are 286 Chinese companies listed on US exchanges.
