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Vanguard invests in Chinese military-linked companies: report
Excerpt:
HONG KONG — Top index fund manager Vanguard has invested in scores of Chinese companies that have links to the nation’s military or have been sanctioned by the U.S. government over alleged human rights abuses, according to research by a bipartisan U.S. group.
The $98.7 billion Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets exchange-traded fund has invested in the subsidiaries of 60 companies that are part of China’s military industrial-complex, according to the report by the Coalition for a Prosperous America.
The group, which represents U.S. manufacturers, workers, farmers and ranchers, said the Vanguard fund had also put money into eight companies sanctioned by the U.S. government over alleged human rights abuses in China’s Western Xinjiang region.
.....The Vanguard fund owns 5,747 stocks, including more than 2,100 Chinese A-share companies, compared with 4,534 names in the FTSE benchmark, the report and fund fact sheet show.
“Vanguard’s plunge into A-shares has, in our view, fundamentally transformed its relationship with the PRC [People’s Republic of China], making it a de facto business partner of the CCP [China Communist Party], the ultimate authority over publicly traded companies in China.”
The report said “there are no absolute restrictions on asset managers investing in Chinese equities,” but added that index funds have put money into subsidiaries of Chinese military companies that have been subject to U.S. sanctions.
Vanguard, for example, has invested $46 million in three subsidiaries of Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC), and $44 million in 10 companies under the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), the report said, citing FactSet data.
The two Chinese parent groups develop advanced aircraft technologies and are prohibited from importing military technology from the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
AECC Aero-Engine Control, a Shenzhen-listed arm of AECC in which Vanguard reportedly has invested $10 million, has also won backing from the National Military-Civil Fusion Industry Investment Fund, led by China’s Finance Ministry, according to a disclosure by the Chinese company.
AECC Aero-Engine amended its corporate constitution last year to include new references to Chinese President Xi Jinping. It authorized its in-house Communist Party organization to lead the company with “Comrade Xi Jinping as the core” and pledged to “deeply study and thoroughly implement Xi Jinping thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era.”
Vanguard accelerated purchases of A-shares after it announced a joint venture in December 2019 with Ant Financial Group, the payment giant backed by Alibaba, hoping to tap into China’s retail wealth management business, the report said. In 2021, the U.S. manager abandoned a plan for a wholly owned mutual fund company in the country, citing a “crowded” market.
.....Western fund managers holding trillions of dollars of assets are coming under increasing political pressure as the U.S. steps up restrictions on investments it claims will help China enhance its military and technological power.
BlackRock, the first foreign fund manager with a wholly owned mutual fund company in China, together with index maker MSCI, was questioned in August by the China committee of the U.S. House of Representatives about whether it was directing funds into Chinese military companies.
State Street Global Advisors Asia was dropped last year as the manager of the Hong Kong-listed Tracker Fund after the U.S. manager quickly reversed a decision to stop investing in companies that the Trump administration said were linked to the Chinese military.
Chatham County man receives $1.4M speeding ticket
Excerpt:
He was fast and then furious.
A man caught speeding down a Georgia freeway was bewildered when cops slapped him with a $1.4 million ticket last month.
Connor Cato was driving home through Savannah on Sept. 2 when the Georgia State Patrol caught him doing 90 in a 55-mile-per-hour zone, he admitted to WSAV-TV.
While he expected a hefty fine, Cato was astounded when he was handed the seven-figure charge.
He called the court, assuming the fee was a typo, but reportedly was told he either had to pay the sum or appear in court.
“‘$1.4 million,’ the lady told me on the phone. I said, ‘This might be a typo’ and she said, ‘No, sir, you either pay the amount on the ticket or you come to court on Dec. 21 at 1:30 p.m.,’” he told the local outlet.
Criminal defense attorney Sneh Patel said he had never seen such a high fine for a misdemeanor.
“Not $1.4 million — that’s something that goes into cases that are drug trafficking, murders or aggravated assaults, something of that nature,” he told WSAV.
Luckily for Cato, the massive price actually was a “placeholder” that he was never expected to pay.
The staggering figure was generated by e-citation software used by the local Recorder’s Court that is automatically applied to “super speeders,” anyone caught going more than 35 miles over the speed limit, said Joshua Peacock, a spokesman for Savannah’s city government.
A judge will set the real fine — which cannot exceed $1,000, plus state-mandated costs — at the mandatory court appearance.
“We do not issue that placeholder as a threat to scare anybody into court, even if this person heard differently from somebody in our organization,” Peacock said in a statement.
“The programmers who designed the software used the largest number possible because super speeder tickets are a mandatory court appearance and do not have a fine amount attached to them when issued by police.”
The city has been using the new system since 2017, but is “working on adjusting the placeholder language to avoid any confusion.”
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Typical government blaming everyone and everything except themselves. More reason for less government at the local level too.