House Appropriations General Services Committee advances Rep. Blaine Wilhour bill to ban state investments in China

For Immediate Release

(Springfield, IL) –– The Illinois House Appropriations General Services Committee today advanced legislation State Representative Blaine Wilhour (R-Beecher City) is sponsoring to prevent state money from being invested in any fund or business enterprise with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

The legislation (House Bill 2984) prohibits the use of public funds in investments or institutions tied to the Chinese Communist Party or the People’s Republic of China. The measure also requires vendors and state contractors to disclose any connection to the Chinese government before submitting a bid.

“The Communist Party in China are bad actors,” Wilhour said. “They have no regard for basic human rights. They are also not a good investment. With their increasing hostilities towards our ally Taiwan, it is a matter of time before US financial sanctions are placed on China. At that point, all of our workers’ state pension money invested in China would become worthless-further hindering our already broken public pension systems.

We as a state have no business investing any of the people’s money into any investment fund or company with direct ties to the Chinese government. We say we support human rights and good government. It is time put our money where our mouth is.”

House Bill 2984 moves to the House floor for further consideration.