Don’t know if you’ve seen this.
Chinese-born Yu Meng, Who Invested California Public Employees’ Retirement Funds in Blacklisted Chinese Military Suppliers, Suddenly Resigns
In March 2020, just weeks before California Gov. Gavin Newsom was “negotiating” a $1 billion mask deal with a Chinese company, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien announced that the Trump administration was “looking at” investments in blacklisted Chinese military companies by the state’s public employees retirement system, known as CalPERS. There were also questions about the relationship between CalPERS’ Chief Investment Officer, Chinese-born U.S. citizen Yu Meng, and the Chinese Communist Party. CalPERS executives vigorously defended Meng, even posting a long defense of their investments in China on their website, but Meng suddenly stepped down Wednesday, effective immediately. In a press release posted after the end of business Wednesday, there was no reason given for Meng’s departure.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed CalPERS‘ investments in a February speech:
“The largest public pension fund in the country is invested in companies that supply the People’s Liberation Army that puts our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines at risk.”
Just days after Pompeo’s remarks, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) highlighted Meng’s prior job (from 2015 to 2018) as Deputy Chief Investment Officer for China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) in a letter to California Gov. Newsom and called for an investigation into Meng’s activities
CalPERS has been funneling retired public servants’ savings to companies that abuse human rights and supply the Chinese military. And it has done so at the behest of its CIO, Yu Ben Meng, a man enlisted in China’s Thousand Talents Program—which has been described by the FBI as one of China’s ‘non-traditional espionage’ programs. This poses a national security risk to every region of the United States. I hope Governor Newsom appreciates the gravity of the situation and speedily launches an investigation into Yu Ben Meng and CalPERS.”
Newsom ignored the letter and denied that Meng was a part of the Thousand Talents Program. But, in a February 25 Los Angeles Times article about Banks’ desire “to investigate Meng’s allegiance and win backing for a crackdown on government workers’ dollars flowing into Chinese companies,” the journalist and Meng both stated conclusively that Meng was affiliated with the TTP.
Interesting. No, I hadn’t seen the Meng part or the story. Thanks for posting.
Newsom is total scum. By the way, he is currently delinquent on his property taxes which has been a story on the local radio for the last few days.
Wow, I sure hope all public pensions are not invested in China.