Canada Pension Plan board lauds China as 'good investment'

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board called China a “good investment” despite ongoing allegations of foreign interference, an intimidation campaign against a member of Parliament, and many human rights atrocities.

“We are exceedingly cautious,” testified Michel Leduc, senior managing director with the Board, at a Commons special committee on Canada-China relations.

Though Chinese companies paid attractive dividends and bolstered Canadian access to the “world’s largest and fastest-growing economies,” he acknowledged the importance of human rights compliance when investing in companies.

“Human rights are increasingly an investment consideration,” Leduc told MPs. “It is how we see the world. We strongly believe any business, asset, or company that does not take human rights seriously will just not be around, so it is a destruction in value.”

He added the CPP Investment Board reviews “evolving geopolitical risks” and aims to conduct themselves as “principled and prudent investors” that act in the best interests of all parties involved.

“As a long-term investor, we actively engage and influence companies with human rights as a longstanding focus area. If that fails, we will exit or avoid investing in the first place.”

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the CPP Investment Board has invested $539 billion globally — China accounts for 10% of those investments. Nearly half of all investment opportunities exist in the U.S. (35%) or Canada (14%).

Records submitted to the committee show the Board owns $4 million in shares in Longi Green Energy Technology Company Limited, the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels. They also alleged the Chinese firm used Uyghur Muslim slave labour.

U.K.’s Sheffield Hallam University named Longi Green in a 2021 research paper on slave labour. “Longi is a customer of many of the polysilicon companies engaged in labour transfers in the Uyghur region,” said the report In Broad Daylight: Uyghur Forced Labour And Global Solar Supply Chains.

On May 3, Ottawa adopted Bill S-211, the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act, mandating that businesses and government bodies report annually on their efforts to prevent or mitigate the risk of slave labour in supply chains.

Liberal MP Rob Oliphant described China investments as a fact of life. “I don’t think you are in the morals business,” said Oliphant. “I think you should be investing our money.”

Other investments by the Board into Chinese firms include $259 million in China Gas Holdings Ltd., a natural gas distributor, $75 million in the state-run China Construction Bank and $37 million in the Bank of China. 

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