Consumers’ Research recently published a warning letter to the public and states with pension funds invested in BlackRock, a firm that holds roughly $10 trillion under management worldwide, highlighting its ties to China.
In an interview with The Hill Feb. 18, BlackRock Executive Director Will Hild followed up on issues with the organization’s deep investment in China and the reported “hypocrisy” in the way they manipulate American energy companies while leaving PetroChina alone.
“We think that it's high time that American consumers be educated on the actions of this company [BlackRock],” Hild told The Hill. “They float under the radar, especially when you think of how big they are. They're the nation's largest investment management company, they invest tens of billions of dollars of United States pension funds, and yet they are cozying up to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)."
Pennsylvania has the eighth-largest amount of money invested with BlackRock out of any state pension fund.
Consumers' Research argues that this represents a danger to both national security and public investments, particularly state-run pension plans tied up with BlackRock.
The same letter was addressed to the governors of the top 10 states with state pension funds invested in BlackRock, including: Washington, South Carolina, Florida, Oklahoma, New York, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Montana, Nebraska and West Virginia.
"BlackRock's actions have real effects on the American consumer,” Hild said, highlighting a 2021 Exxon board vote where BlackRock helped elect three “radical environmentalists” to push the company out of oil and gas production, and into green renewables Hild believes will raise the price of gas.
States have also begun to take action against companies that boycott energy companies. Texas, for example, has cited what it calls BlackRock's discrimination against the oil and gas industry as a reason for divesting the state's pension funds from the company, according to Houston Daily.
West Virginia also took action against BlackRock in January, when State Treasurer Riley Moore announced that the Board of Treasury Investments, which manages the state’s $8 billion in operating funds, will no longer use BlackRock. Moore cited BlackRock’s embrace of net-zero policies as the reason for the action.
Earlier this year, BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink wrote a letter detailing BlackRock’s commitment to “net zero” carbon.
"BlackRock has maintained a bullish approach to investing billions in Chinese firms, supporting their economy and helping fuel the rise of their military, which barely a month ago tested a hypersonic missile," Hild wrote in a December Consumer's Research letter to several governors. "Investment in Chinese companies could also make U.S. investors unwitting accomplices in the expansion of the CCP’s surveillance and intelligence gathering apparatus, or worse yet, make them party to human rights abuses like the ongoing genocide against Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China."
Many U.S. public pension funds use BlackRock's investment products, according to SWFI fund transaction data. Competitors in this space include State Street, Northern Trust, Invesco, Vanguard and Wellington Management Co.