I hope every governor follows the lead of Gov. Ron DeSantis and looks seriously at divesting their state pension funds from China. U.S. pension funds have no business being invested in slave labor and in a country that want to destroy us.
Americans for Limited Government President Richard Manning was a guest recently on Jeff Crouere’s Ringside Politics Show on Real America’s Voice News. Rick and Jeff discussed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s recent move to divest Florida’s state pension funds from Chinese assets.
Jeff Crouere: Rick, I think China is our foremost enemy in the world and we’re funding them. We’re funding the enemy. But one governor stepping forward and we want to give him a credit.
Rick Manning: China is the enemy and it’s not just me saying it. China has said it. The expansion of Chinese military power throughout the South China Sea and the Western Pacific are the actions of a country intent upon imposing their will in the future.
Jeff Crouere: One of the many things that I gave President Donald Trump credit for was his stance toward China. I believe Trump was the first president who really to stood up to them. Under Trump, we started to see the trade deficit with the Chinese go down significantly. We had the lowest trade deficit in 10 years in Donald Trump’s final year.
Rick Manning: Now with Biden in office, we’ve already seen a reversal of those successful Trump policies. Consider Chinese companies like Huawei, which is China’s internet, functioning manufacturers, they manufacture all the stuff that makes the Internet work. They were excluded from several Western nations based on Donald Trump’s efforts. Any country that uses Huawei products is opening the door for Chinese to have access to everything we are doing in the upcoming 5G economy. It’s dangerous. It’s irresponsible, and fortunately people like Gov. Ron DeSantis are beginning to say “No. Wait a second. We can’t be doing business with these people.”
Jeff Crouere: And that’s a good segue because he’s my favorite governor. He is somebody that I think is doing a great job for the people of Florida. Give us the details on what he has announced regarding China.
Rick Manning: DeSantis wants his state legislature take a hard look at divesting from China. He’s really pulling back the power of how the Florida state pensions and the Florida State government investments are going to be made and put a moral component to it, as well as the national security component by saying we really don’t want to be dealing with the Chinese Communist Party. They’re going to take a hard look at it. Hopefully, Florida will dump their investments in China. But, you know, this is something that really, really matters because it’s not just the slavery in China. It’s not just the national security threats that China poses. But it’s also that Chinese investments are not transparent. They don’t follow any of the rules in terms of accounting rules. And as a result, when you invest in China, you don’t know what you’re investing in. And that’s completely unsuitable for any investment, let alone a pension fund investment.
Jeff Crouere: Also, we have the fact that they’re brutalizing the Uyghurs the Tibetans. They’re clamping down on Hong Kong, and you saw that freedom protest and that leaders were thrown in jail. They just had an election, a sham election where a bunch of Communist Chinese lovers were elected in Hong Kong and the turnout was very low that people really stayed away because he knew it was a sham election and then, of course, you’ve got their threats towards Taiwan, which are increasing, which is why I question whether we should be going to the Beijing Olympics, recommending and giving China the money, the prestige of our participation in those Olympics.
Rick Manning: I think it’s always a danger when Olympics become politicized. But let’s understand the Chinese are using these Olympics, the way Germany used the 1936 Olympics. I’ll tell you why the Biden administration won’t boycott them. And it’s very simple. Comcast owns the television rights to it. And Comcast would lose billions of dollars if we boycott it because nobody would watch the Olympics in the U.S if our athletes aren’t participating. A lot of times it comes down to dollars.
And that’s the kind of decision Ron DeSantis is making, and other governors need to follow, matters, because dollars matter. And state pension funds hold tremendous amount of dollars, that they’re investing in places that aren’t right for America. U.S. pension funds have no business being invested in slave labor and in a country that want to destroy us.
Jeff Crouere: Every governor should follow the lead of Ron DeSantis. Once again, he’s showing the way and we need to commend him for that.
