Washington DC – On November 15, 2022, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union urged a U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee to require public disclosure of private equity firms’ holdings in China, citing as an example KKR’s investment in a Chinese surveillance company made on behalf of public employee pension funds.
The Union’s testimony, available here, described KKR’s investment in Cue Group and how Cue jointly developed surveillance technology in 2020 with a government lab run by China’s First Research Institute of the Ministry of Public Security, an architect of China’s vast surveillance system.
A February 2022 investigation by The Wire China obtained confirmation from the Chinese government lab of Cue’s collaboration with the lab, while KKR and Cue denied it.
UFCW researcher Courtney Alexander testified: “we urge you to give public pension funds, investors, regulators, and American citizens the tools to hold private equity accountable to our own national security and human rights interests — by mandating public disclosure of all subsidiaries and investments in countries of national security concern.”
The hearing entitled, “Investing in our Rivals: Examining U.S. Capital Flows to Foreign Rivals and Adversaries Around the World”, was held on November 15, 2022 before the U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship and Capital Markets.
Cue is a portfolio company of KKR Asian Fund III, which is managed by KKR & Co. Earlier this year, UFCW called on public pension funds invested in KKR Asian Fund III to divest of Cue Group.