Americans are understandably worried about China right now. There’s the recent spy balloon that floated across the continental United States, plus tensions over Taiwan. But there’s also America’s heavy dependence on essential goods and medicines from China. And if that’s not bad enough, China is also continuing to use slave labor in some of its factories.

Americans are deeply troubled by all of this. And yet some of their own investments and pensions are actually helping to prop up China’s authoritarian regime.

How is this possible?

Because China keeps using America’s financial markets as a stealth means to raise funds for its state-controlled companies.

In 2020, Congress attempted to increase scrutiny of Chinese entities sold in America’s financial markets through the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act. However, Beijing is still bypassing full accountability–and fleecing unsuspecting American investors.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has identified 252 Chinese companies, including eight state-owned enterprises, that are listed on America’s three largest stock exchanges.

Additionally, thousands of other Chinese companies tied to forced labor and China’s military are included in investment products sold by leading Wall Street fund managers such as Vanguard, BlackRock, Charles Schwab, Fidelity, State Street, and PIMCO.

Knowing this, Americans should take control of their finances and stop investing in China–particularly when it could subsidize Beijing’s slave labor. But along with such ethical concerns, China is also a bad investment due to its unstable economy.

Many of China’s publicly traded companies are fraudulent, or are linked to the Chinese Communist Party’s military-civil fusion. However, Beijing routinely blocks U.S. scrutiny of their audits. And equally problematic is that foreign investors are prevented from actually owning shares in Chinese companies. Instead, Chinese law insists that they purchase shares in the “variable interest entities” that actually hold Chinese companies.

Plenty of Chinese companies have already been sanctioned by the U.S. government for human rights and national security violations. But even when the Treasury Department adds a Chinese company to one of its sanctions lists, Beijing can simply change the company’s name to avoid penalties.

This is bad business. When Americans set up investments, pensions, and retirement funds, they want to know exactly where their money is going. That’s why U.S. investors must start insisting that fund managers disclose any exposure to Chinese entities–regardless of how they’re traded–or if such entities are included in exchange-traded funds.

The good news is that more and more fund managers are moving beyond China. In fact, “X-China” investment is now a growing market. And new indexes with more investment options are opening up.

As Americans look to protect their pensions and savings, they should focus on stocks and funds that provide adequate transparency regarding geopolitical risks. Avoiding ties to China–and its thousands of shady entities–is a wise choice. It’s also the safer path for return-on-investment in the long run.

Robby Stephany Saunders is vice president for national security at the Coalition for a Prosperous America.