Billionaire investor defends his human rights comment comparing Chinese government to ‘strict parent’

Billionaire investor defends his human rights comment comparing Chinese government to ‘strict parent’Billionaire investor defends his human rights comment comparing Chinese government to ‘strict parent’
Bridgewater Associates Ray Dalio
Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio is downplaying comments he made during a recent CNBC interview that seemed to dismiss the alleged human rights abuses in China.
China as a “strict parent”: The billionaire hedge fund manager drew online backlash last Tuesday after responding to a question about his China investments on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” last week, reported Bloomberg
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  • “I look to whatever the rules are. If the government has a policy that I should do a certain thing and so on, but I can’t be an expert in all of those particular dynamics,” Dalio told host Andrew Ross Sorkin. “As a top-down country what they are doing is … they behave like a strict parent.”
  • He then went on to compare it to investing in the U.S.: “Well, what’s going on in the United States? And should I not invest in the United States because of our own human-rights issues, or other things?”
  • In an op-ed, members of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board called out Dalio for his “tone-deaf” comments that allegedly reflect “why so many Americans dislike Wall Street.”
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  • In a tweet, Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said Dalio exhibited a moral lapse in his “feigned ignorance of China’s horrific abuses and rationalization of complicit investments.” 
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A clarification: In response to the mounting negative reactions, the 72-year-old investor wrote a series of tweets on Sunday in an attempt to rectify his interview responses, which he claims have “created a misunderstanding.” 
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  • “I assure you that I didn’t mean to convey that human rights aren’t important because I certainly believe they are,“ Dalio wrote. “And I didn’t mean to convey that the US and China deal with these issues similarly because they certainly don’t.”
  • According to Dalio, he was merely explaining “how Confucianism is based on the family and that extends into their governance, which is a more autocratic approach that is like a strict parent. I was not expressing my own opinion or endorsing that approach.” 
  • He further wrote that his answer caused confusion for failing to  differentiate between “understanding and agreeing.” 
Bridgewater has made notable investments in China, including the $1.25 billion it raised for its investment fund in the country in the last quarter alone, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Featured Image via Bridgewater Associates
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