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George Soros ups the ante in war of words with BlackRock over China, exposing contrast of bets on world’s second-biggest market

  • Soros, an early investor in Hainan Airlines, calls BlackRock’s expansion in China ‘tragic mistake,’ in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal
  • Soros, the founder of Quantum Fund and the Open Society Foundation, has written two opinion pieces in the Journal since August 13

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Billionaire investor George Soros Photo: AFP
Chad Bray

One of America’s earliest investors in China fired an opening salvo in a potential war of words with the biggest global asset manager this week, as two of Wall Street’s best-known investors spar over the investment potential of the world’s second-largest economy.

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In one corner is George Soros, the billionaire founder of the Quantum Fund and an early investor in Hainan Airlines. Soros warned in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal that bullish calls by BlackRock to invest in China could cost investors and inhibit American security goals.

In the other corner is BlackRock’s chairman and CEO Larry Fink, who believes that the lack of exposure to China among global investment portfolios deprives investors from the nation’s growing middle class and rising income.

The stark difference in views and tones by two of the best-known money managers on Wall Street underscores the dilemma facing global capital in the exercise of their fiduciary duties. China’s economy, the first to enter and emerge from coronavirus-induced lockdowns, is expected to be one of the fastest growing markets globally in 2021 and 2022, even as Beijing’s crackdown on the country’s high-flying technology entrepreneurs has unnerved overseas investors.

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“Pouring billions of dollars into China now is a tragic mistake,” Soros wrote in the Journal on Monday, his second contribution to the newspaper’s Op-Ed pages on China since August 13. “It is likely to lose money for BlackRock’s clients and, more important, will damage the national security interests of the US and other democracies.”

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