For Immediate Release
Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Contact: Hannah Goss, hgoss@azdem.org
The Daily Beast: “Blake Masters Says He’s Avoided Chinese Investments. Untrue.”
“Masters rails against investments in China—except for when he’s involved in investing in China”
PHOENIX — Yesterday, The Daily Beast published a new report exposing Blake Masters’ false claim that he’s never invested in “a single startup” in China.
Masters has become notorious for his divisive and downright dangerous rhetoric, often employing “xenophobic anti-immigration rhetoric.” However, according to previously unreported business records, Masters has a number of lucrative ties to China. As The Daily Beast lays out, he’s worked closely with allied Chinese Communist Party investors to fund a Chinese biomedical startup and done business with a second company that was awarded by a CCP-backed organization.
Turns out, Blake Masters’ offensive rhetoric is all smoke and mirrors to hide the truth: During his stint in business, Masters’ ties to China are undeniable and damaging.
Read about it here, or see below for key excerpts of the story:
- California tech financier turned Arizona GOP senate candidate Blake Masters often cites his own business record as a model for his hardline anti-China policies, claiming that as an investor he had not raised money for “a single startup” in China, and wanting to “literally ban” Chinese nationals from working for U.S. companies out of national security concerns.
- One problem. It turns out, Masters has participated in multiple funding rounds for a Chinese biomedical startup—including alongside Chinese Communist Party investors. He also had business ties to a second, U.S.-based medical company when it was honored by a CCP-backed organization.
- During Masters’ time at Thiel Capital, the firm made a string of three investments in a Chinese pharmaceutical company called Beijing Imunopharm Technology Co., Ltd, aka “Immunochina.” […] Further, the Thiel investment appears to have funded only Chinese projects.
- For Masters, whose xenophobic anti-immigration rhetoric has laid blanket attacks on Chinese nationals, that’s a sticking point. But he would seem to have to reconcile that position with the fact that his co-investors are members of the Chinese Communist Party.
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