Sunday, December 27, 2020
California’s Highest-Paid Govt Employee Worked for Org Tied to Chinese Espionage
Taxpayers paid $1.7 million to ex-pension fund manager Meng
California taxpayers shelled out more than $1 million to a man linked to a Chinese espionage program, making him the state government’s highest-paid worker.
Meng Yu, former chief investment officer of the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), received more than $1.7 million in total pay and benefits in 2019, according to the latest financial disclosures obtained by Transparent California, a taxpayer watchdog group. Under Meng's leadership the pension fund, which covers two million members in the retirement system and 1.5 million members under its health program, has been subject to federal inquiries into its investments in Chinese government entities.
Meng took the lead at the pension fund after China's Thousand Talents Program recruited him to serve as the deputy CIO of China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), a state-controlled entity. The FBI considers the Thousand Talents Program an example of "China's non-traditional espionage against the United States" that seeks to recruit people to transfer U.S. trade secrets and taxpayer-funded research into the hands of the Chinese government. Meng told the propaganda outlet People's Daily that he worked for SAFE out of patriotic commitment to "the motherland."
Neither CalPERS nor Governor Gavin Newsom's (D.) office responded to requests for comment.
Robert Fellner, the executive director of Transparent California, blasted CalPERS for failing to conduct appropriate oversight for such a high-profile position, pointing to Meng's August resignation.
"One would think that the state’s highest-paid employee earned his position after rigorous scrutiny revealed him to be the best candidate for the job," Fellner said. "If such recklessness is prevalent in a decision of this size and magnitude, how can Californians have any faith that their tax dollars are being spent responsibly in...
United States: Immigrant women have higher incomes than white men
WASHINGTON. Unwittingly, the US executive has probably smashed two notions most cherished by the “victimized” left: the “patriarchal society” and “white privilege”. According to figures from the US Department of Labor for the third quarter of 2020, several categories of the population of the United States earn more money each week than white men, reported the Canadian online magazine Quillette.
This is the case for Asian women, who earned $1 224 on average weekly in the third quarter of 2020, compared to $1 122 for white men.
At the same time, official data also showed that the median full-time annual earnings of female American workers of Palestinian, Iranian and Turkish descent are higher than those of white American women. The same figures showed that American workers of Turkish and Iranian descent had higher incomes than white men.
Unlike many European countries, the United States allows racial or ethnic categories in the census questionnaire submitted every ten years to the population of the country. The last census dates from 2020.
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