US Republicans call for McKinsey to be banned from federal contracts

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Top Republican lawmakers have called for McKinsey to be banned from securing federal contracts in the US following the revelation that a think-tank led by the consulting firm gave policy recommendations to the Chinese central government.

Marco Rubio, the vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, and Michael McCaul, the chair of the House foreign affairs committee, said McKinsey had undermined US security through the think-tank’s role in the development of Beijing’s 13th five-year plan in 2015.

“It’s shocking that a US company allegedly supported the Chinese Communist party’s efforts to develop policies and plans that violate international trade rules and threaten American national security and economic interests,” McCaul told the Financial Times on Friday.

“Companies supporting our adversaries’ military or human rights abuses shouldn’t receive contracts paid for with the taxpayer money of hardworking Americans.”

McCaul was responding to an FT report that the Chinese government’s central planning agency had commissioned a McKinsey-led think-tank called the Urban China Initiative to produce research for Beijing’s 2016-2020 five-year plan.

That plan committed China to boosting its technological capabilities and contributed to a rise in Sino-US tensions, which has included a more hawkish mood in Washington towards western businesses’ work in China.

Bob Sternfels, McKinsey’s global managing partner, this month told Congress he was unaware of the firm having ever worked for the Chinese central government. McKinsey this week stood by the statement, saying UCI was a separate entity set up in partnership with two universities and McKinsey had not authored the research that UCI did for China’s National Development and Reform Commission.

“McKinsey appears to have lied multiple times about its relationship with the…