McCormick wants the US to divest from China. As a hedge fund manager, he oversaw investments in Chinese companies

In Republican David McCormick’s second bid for US Senate in Pennsylvania, he has rebranded himself as a Trumpian-hardliner on China, sounding the warning bells on US economic ties with China.

However, as the head of the world’s largest hedge fund, McCormick oversaw massive investments into US exchange traded Chinese companies and holdings, according to a CNN KFile review of the hedge fund’s holdings.

“We need to stop investing in China, and I know something about investing, put restrictions on portfolio investment or direct investment that aids the CCP or the Chinese military,” McCormick said on Hugh Hewitt’s podcast earlier this month.

At a House select committee on China hearing in September 2023, McCormick testified that while he was CEO of the billion-dollar hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, he held “deep reservations” about doing business with the country.

“As CEO, I had a fiduciary responsibility to our shareholders and our clients to maximize returns in line with their needs. I held deep reservations about Bridgewater’s exposure to the moral and patriotic hazards of doing business in China,” McCormick said in September 2023 before officially launching his campaign.

Under McCormick’s leadership from 2017 through 2021, Bridgewater Associates disclosed holdings in US exchange traded Chinese companies grew from $1.6 million in the second quarter of 2017 to $1.77 billion in the final quarter of 2021, according to filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission reviewed by CNN’s KFile.

That amounts to a 108,000% increase in Chinese holdings over a five-year period. In 2017, Bridgewater reported investing in just one US exchange traded Chinese company; by the final quarter of 2021, its holdings included 47 Chinese companies.

During McCormick’s leadership at Bridgewater, at least one of the hedge…