Hinz: Now it's Pritzker whose Chinese investments draw attention
The issue of investments in China is surfacing again in the race for governor, and this time incumbent J.B. Pritzker is trying to deflect bad appearances.
Pritzker's camp last week promoted a story in The Athletic about Chicago's Citadel making investments in a Chinese security company that sold surveillance equipment to oppressive police agencies in that country. Citadel is owned by Ken Griffin, a huge financial backer of Pritzker reelection foe Richard Irvin.
Now a detailed memo is being circulated raising questions about Pritzker's financial involvement in that Communist country.
Most of the memo deals with new hotels built by the family Hyatt chain, of which Pritzker is a beneficiary, or efforts by the family's Marmon Group to develop the Chinese coal industry. Those investments are in some cases 30 years old, uncontroversial at least in the case of hotels, and did not directly involve the governor.