McKinsey & Company CEO Bob Sternfels, who has been scrutinized by lawmakers recently over the management firm’s ties to the Chinese military, attended the China Development Forum in Beijing late last month. The conference was backed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and featured several high-ranking CCP members.
Sternfels attended the China Development Forum and spoke during a panel discussion regarding “challenges and opportunities of demographic change” and, reportedly, a symposium on Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The conference featured high-ranking CCP officials like Chinese Premier Li Qiang, who serves as the second-highest ranking figure on the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CCP — a committee of the CCP’s top officials.
Likewise, the conference was backed by the Development Research Center of the State Council, the policy arm of the CCP that regularly recommends policy goals in the interests of China, which are typically antithetical to the interests of the United States.
The conference’s chair Lu Hao, who serves as the director of the CCP’s Development Research Center of the State Council, also spoke at the opening ceremony.
Bob Sternfels, global managing partner at McKinsey & Co. Inc., enjoys a panel session on day two of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024. (Hollie Adams/Bloomberg via Getty)
Among the other panels listed at the conference were those promoting left-wing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies, green policies to fight climate change, and economic globalization.
Sternfels’s attendance at the conference may raise eyebrows for lawmakers who have ridiculed McKinsey’s work in China, even as he joined several other U.S. business executives at the conference, such as Apple CEO Tim Cook along with Citadel founder and CEO Kenneth Griffin.
Just last year, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and then-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) revealed that McKinsey “failed to disclose consulting work for the Chinese government, and appeared to misrepresent the firm’s work for the Chinese government under oath,” while raking in close to $500 million in American taxpayer dollars through federal contracts with the U.S. military since 2008.
McKinsey’s alleged misrepresentation of its work for the Chinese government, the committee found, occurred when in 2024, Sternfels told Senators that “we’ve never worked with the Chinese Communist Party or the central government in China to the best of my knowledge.”
The committee’s report detailed:
In nearly 17 pages, the lawmakers outline the details of McKinsey’s work to advance the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese military, its work to shape the Chinese Communist Party’s five-year plans to surpass the United States, and its failure to report its China work as required by U.S. law. [Emphasis added]
The committee sent the report to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland and then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, asking them to review whether McKinsey should continue receiving American taxpayer dollars through federal contracts despite its ties to the Chinese government.
In 2021, a bombshell report from NBC News exposed McKinsey’s China-linked work while the firm continued accepting U.S. federal contracts:
McKinsey’s consulting contracts with the federal government give it an insider’s view of U.S. military planning, intelligence and high-tech weapons programs. But the firm also advises Chinese state-run enterprises that have supported Beijing’s naval buildup in the Pacific and played a key role in China’s efforts to extend its influence around the world, according to an NBC News investigation. [Emphasis added]
…
In four federal contracts obtained by NBC News, including with the Defense Department and the Navy, McKinsey made no mention of its clients in China or any possible conflict of interest. Under federal law, contractors must disclose any possible conflicts of interest. [Emphasis added]
Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO), Rick Scott (R-FL), Gary Peters (D-MI), as well as then-Sen. Rubio, introduced legislation last year, the Time to Choose Act, that would ban firms like McKinsey from receiving federal contracts while at the same time having ties to U.S. adversaries like China.
A spokesperson for McKinsey told National Review that the firm believes “in a strong private sector and economic engagement, which is why our work in China focuses on multinational and Chinese private sector firms, and why our managing partner attended a forum alongside more than 70 CEOs, board chairs and other executives from US and global firms.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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