Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said in a tweet Monday that the Biden administration refused to commit to not bailing out Chinese companies that invested in Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) with American taxpayer money.
“It’s well known that SVB funneled American money into Chinese companies,” Cotton tweeted.
“I pressed the Biden administration today to commit not to bailout Chinese companies with money from Arkansas’s taxpayers, but they refused. Which tells you that’s exactly what President Biden plans to do,” he said.
Silicon Valley Bank had supported many start-up companies, including those from China, according to a CNBC report.
According to the report, the bank allowed Chinese mobile numbers to be used for opening accounts and allowed for a week-long vetting period for new accounts for start-ups compared to the three to six months for traditional banks.
Having a bank account with SVB allowed these China-based start-ups to tap funding from U.S.-based investors, the report said.
The report notes that a Chinese biotech company called Everest Medicines said it expects to recover most of its deposits at the bank through the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).