With Senate control up for grabs in swing states, both parties are trying to stress China’s threat to US economy

In testimony to Congress last year, David McCormick, now the Republican candidate for US Senate in Pennsylvania, said that as CEO of Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund in the world, he “held deep reservations” about “the moral and patriotic hazards of doing business in China”.

As CNN reported, between 2017 and 2021, such qualms did not stop McCormick overseeing an increase in Bridgewater’s Chinese holdings from $1.6m to $1.77bn. Nor, according to Bloomberg, did Bridgewater flinch from significant investments in companies that supply the Chinese military. It has also been reported that McCormick oversaw investment in a Chinese fentanyl producer and, as HuffPost put it, “profited from China trade policies he helped shape” as a deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs under George W Bush.