Rubio: Evergrande's Looming Collapse Highlights Dangers of Americans Investing in Chinese Companies

Press Release

Washington, D.C. -- U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) released a statement on China Evergrande Group's impending default. The company, which has more than $300 billion in outstanding liabilities, is the world's most indebted developer and on the brink of collapse. According to reports, major U.S. investment companies and other funds, including BlackRock, UBS, HSBC and Ashmore Group, held more than $1.3 billion of Evergrande's international bonds.

"Far too many Americans have retirement accounts, their pensions, and college funds invested in risky Chinese stocks without even knowing it," Rubio said. "Whether it is the collapse of Evergrande, Beijing's DiDi intervention, or the temporary disappearance of Alibaba's founder, no good can come from gambling Americans' savings in risky foreign companies. The Biden Administration needs to recognize that while Wall Street may want to make friends in Beijing, the Chinese Communist Party will gladly enrich itself by wiping out Americans' savings."

In January 2020, Rubio warned against U.S. investment in the debt of Chinese companies in the "financial services" title of the "Phase One" agreement:

Another appalling example of how good this part of the agreement is for China is the provision authorizing American financial companies to purchase Chinese nonperforming loans. These are loans that the borrower is struggling to pay off. This makes them a favorite of Chinese state-owned enterprises and other companies with large capital expenditures but little revenue growth expected in the near term.

A majority of Chinese nonperforming loans go to state-owned enterprises. In the past, when a Chinese bank struggled with financing nonperforming loans on its books, Beijing had to bail it out with Chinese money. But now, under this accord, American savings can do it.

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