<![CDATA[Top Republican Lawmaker Disclosed Stock in Chinese Company He Labeled a Nat Sec Threat]]>

<![CDATA[Top Republican Lawmaker Disclosed Stock in Chinese Company He Labeled a Nat Sec Threat]]> https://usagag.com/2020/05/08/top-republican-lawmaker-disclosed-stock-in-chinese-company-he-labeled-a-nat-sec-threat/ Fri, 08 May 2020 15:52:10 +0000 hourly 1 https://usagag.com Top Republican Lawmaker Disclosed Stock in Chinese Company He Labeled a Nat Sec Threat Representative Michael McCaul, who has harshly criticized China in his position as the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, disclosed that his family owns stock in a Chinese tech company he described as a threat to national security.

An April 20 periodic transaction report showed that McCaul disclosed a February purchase of between $50,000 and $100,000 in shares of the Chinese firm Tencent Holdings, Politico reported.

In November, several months before the shares were purchased, the Texas congressman said that Tencent Holdings is among the “Chinese companies that threaten America’s economic and national security.”

The tech conglomerate is “heavily involved” in the “social credit system, a dystopian system China has implemented to score its citizens’ behavior,” McCaul said at the time, as well as an “integral part” of the Chinese Communist Party’s industrial policies and “one of four national champions for artificial intelligence.”

McCaul’s lawyer, Elliot Berke, said the shares are not owned personally by McCaul but by his wife, and the decision to invest in Tencent was made by a third party.

“Congressman McCaul did not purchase any shares in China’s Tencent Holdings or any other Chinese company,” the attorney said. “Congressman McCaul’s wife has assets she solely owns and a third party manager made the purchase without her direction.”

Tencent owns the Chinese social media platform WeChat, which has more than one billion users and is suspected of monitoring the activities of users both inside and outside of China. Tencent is also associated with Chinese tech firm Huawei, which U.S. officials said can secretly access American cellular phone networks, giving it access to sensitive information.

McCaul has taken a leading role in criticizing China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic as well, accusing Beijing of launching perhaps the “worst cover-up in human history.”

He was tapped on Thursday by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy as chairman of the China Task Force, the aim of which is to develop “legislative solutions to address the Chinese Communist Party’s malign global agenda.”

The task force will “develop new and enduring policy solutions that, among others, enhance our economic strength and create jobs, protect our national security, rethink our supply chains and grow our competitive edge in technology,” McCaul said in a statement on his appointment.

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