Gov. Ron DeSantis moves to sever links between state pension fund and CCP

The administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis moved to wrest control of the state’s pension fund from private asset managers who may have investments in China.

DeSantis was joined by Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis and Attorney Ashley Moody at a meeting of the State Board of Administration (SBA) on Monday, where he made a motion to “revoke all proxy voting authority that has been given to outside fund managers” to ensure fund managers “act solely in the finance interest of the state’s funds.”

The motion also directs the SBA to examine Florida Retirement System’s investments “to determine how many assets the state has in China.”

“I would like the SBA to survey the investments that are currently being done,” Mr. DeSantis said in a statement. “When the Legislature comes back, they can make statutory changes to say that the Communist Party of China is not a vehicle that we want to be entangled with. I think that that would be something that would be very, very prudent.”

The move was spurred on by a campaign by Consumers’ Research, a conservative watchdog group, which brought attention to growing ties between BlackRock, the world’s largest investment company with over $9.6 trillion in managed assets, and Beijing.

“BlackRock has been using their proxy votes to hamper American companies, leading to higher burdens on Americans when we can least afford it,” Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild said. “They have used American investment dollars to cozy up to the Chinese Communist Party in a betrayal of our nation that puts American pension dollars at risk.”

Reports show BlackRock has invested in at least two Chinese companies on the U.S. entity list of national security threats, to which the sale of American-made components are banned. Experts have warned against the national security implications of U.S. investment into Chinese companies that operate with permission and under the supervision of the Communist Party.