(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) California’s far-leftist system of universities became “progressive” enough to invest millions of dollars in companies that are connected to the ongoing Uyghur genocide.
The General Endowment Pool holdings disclosed through June 2022 showed that the university system recently invested tens of millions of dollars in companies that have reportedly been complicit in the crimes against humanity ongoing against the Uyghur Muslim people, Alibaba and MSCI China, according to the Daily Caller.
Many countries and hundreds of human rights organizations declared that China is a country that has committed human rights abuses against the Uyghurs, like imprisonment in detention camps, mandating forced labor, the mass arrest of Uyghur men, forced sterilization and requiring Uyghurs to house Chinese Communist Party officials.
A 2020 report by industry watchdog IPVM stated that UC invested $14,997,234 into Alibaba, a company that created software that can identify Uyghur people by using one of its features, facial recognition. UC invested $37,571,922 into Alibaba, as reported on June 30, 2022.
The Federal Register reported that in 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce imposed trade restrictions on Megvii and SenseTime, two Alibaba-funded AI organizations, because they were “contrary to the foreign policy interests of the United States.”
UC also invested $27,613,608 into an index comprised of large- and mid-cap Chinese firms, MSCI China, its website said. Through pensions, UC also invested $75,821,519 into a company with similar ties.
According to a Hong Kong Watch and the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University report, 12 companies from the MSCI China Index engaged in forced labor and camp and surveillance construction.
“If the average Briton or American realized that hundreds of millions of pounds or billions of pounds were being invested in Chinese technology firms with close ties to the state, they would be outraged,” Johnny Patterson, the author of the report and co-founder of Hong Kong Watch, told The Guardian.
UC also invested $49,749,180 through endowments and $75,093,102 through pensions into Sequoia Capital, an American venture capital firm. This company funded Yitu Technology, an alleged human rights abuser, and DeepGlint, that like Alibaba indulges in facial recognition technology, Business Standard reported.
