PSSI Perspective #38: Overcharged: The Hidden Costs of CATL's Stock Exchange Ambitions
11 Apr 2025/PSSI
PSSI’s latest Perspective examines the growing risks posed by CATL, a leading Chinese lithium-ion battery manufacturer, due to its ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and China’s Military-Civil Fusion (MCF) strategy. In January 2025, the U.S. Department of Defense designated CATL as a “Chinese Military Company Operating in the United States,” raising serious national security concerns. Nevertheless, CATL is still enjoying substantial Western investment as a publicly traded company, and is further seeking a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange underwritten by U.S. financial institutions.
CATL is pursuing this secondary listing in Hong Kong, which is expected to raise up to $7.7 billion, even as U.S. lawmakers push for the company’s inclusion on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List due to its links to forced labor in Xinjiang. As the U.S. government is signaling increasing concern over how Wall Street investments are aiding China’s military modernization - warning that American capital is directly contributing to Beijing’s strategic ambitions - PSSI’s newest Perspective highlights CATL as a case study to underscore the urgent need for financial oversight and capital market restrictions. More must be done to ensure that Western investors do not inadvertently fund adversarial military expansion and human rights violations.
The publication is available for download here.