Fidelity Sets Up Back Office in China

Fidelity Investments is facing a growing movement of anti-genocide activists that are demanding that Fidelity divest its large holdings in Petrochina and Sinopec, two Chinese oil companies that are supporting the Sudanese government’s genocidal campaign.

And yet, this week Fidelity announced that it is opening a back office in China. Rather than reducing its connections with China, Fidelity is at this very moment building a greater presence in a country with a government that has shamelessly wooed the Sudanese government. Earlier this year, President Hu Jintao of China traveled to Sudan to provide millions in loans and grants for infrastructure including a palace for President Bashir, the leading perpetrator of the genocide.

Besides the workers’ rights issues and the fact that Fidelity will be paying its Chinese employees a fraction of what it would have to pay its U.S. staff, this type of investment in China will bolster the Chinese government’s image at a time when it should be condemned.

Fidelity Investments seems to feel that it can insulate itself from any moral responsibility related to the genocide in Darfur. And yet, Fidelity’s flaw is not an act of omission; it’s an act of commission. Fidelity, whether it will admit it or not, is providing the fuel – namely millions of dollars in oil revenue - for the government of Sudan to continue its genocidal campaign against the people of Darfur.