ICYMI: David McCormick’s longtime praise for China and trade could bite his Pa. Senate run [Philadelphia Inquirer]

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Philadelphia Inquirer: David McCormick’s longtime praise for China and trade could bite his Pa. Senate run
By Jonathan Tamari
February 8, 2022

As he courts Donald Trump’s endorsement, McCormick’s past statements and his hedge fund’s investment in China represent perhaps his greatest political liability.

Key Points:

• As a Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, David McCormick has echoed former President Donald Trump’s “America First” rhetoric and supported a hard line against China. But when he landed in Beijing in September 2007, he brought a far different message.

• “When China succeeds, the United States succeeds,” said McCormick, then the Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs. Both countries, he said, had a “huge interest” in “the continued growth and prosperity of the other.”

• “We owe much of the strength and vitality of our economic relationship today to the remarkable success of China’s economic development over the last three decades,” he said then, years before his hedge fund would raise more than $1 billion for investments in China. “No one here should have any doubt about our admiration for what China has achieved.”

• It wasn’t an isolated statement. As both a public official and private citizen, McCormick in the late 2000′s delivered speeches, made comments, and wrote essays that praised China’s economic growth and touted the benefits of U.S. access to a vast, rising market. He advocated for welcoming high-skilled immigrants, urged America to embrace free trade and globalization, and warned repeatedly against protectionism and “Buy USA” provisions in federal law.

• Most notably to McCormick’s GOP primary rivals, just three months ago the hedge fund where he was CEO, Bridgewater Associates, raised $1.25 billion for an investment fund in China… According to The Wall Street Journal, it made Bridgewater one of the largest foreign managers of private money in China.

• As McCormick runs in Pennsylvania’s GOP primary, and openly courts Trump’s approval, those past statements, combined with his hedge fund’s investment, now represent perhaps his greatest political liability — especially in a party that has adopted Trump’s protectionist posture.

• His rivals see vulnerability. Their main line of attack against McCormick, played out in millions of dollars of TV ads, has been his hedge fund’s investment in China.

• “China’s friend, not ours,” concludes one recent attack ad from GOP rival Mehmet Oz.

###