Mitt Romney Accuses Ray Dalio Of 'Sad Moral Lapse' In Excusing Chinese Human Rights Abuses

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) has taken aim at hedge fund executive Ray Dalio, accusing the founder and co-chairman of Bridgewater Associates of profiting from investing in China while blithely ignoring the country's human rights abuses.

What Happened: In a message posted on Twitter TWTR, Romney opened a volley against Dalio by writing, “Ray Dalio is brilliant and a friend, but his feigned ignorance of China’s horrific abuses and rationalization of complicit investments there is a sad moral lapse. Tragically, it is shared by far too many here and throughout the free world.”

Romney’s slam follows news that Bridgewater Associates raised $1.3 billion last month for a new private fund in China, the company’s third.

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Why It Happened: Although Romney did not state why he was suddenly openly critical of Dalio, his agitation appears to be rooted in the latter’s interview on CNBC's “Squawk Box” this week where he kept deflecting and downplaying questions on human rights in China.

When asked how human rights impacts his investing decisions, Dalio shrugged that he “can’t be an expert in those types of things” while adding he only focused on whether a “government has a certain policy that I should do a certain thing” — although he claimed he “can’t be an expert on all of those particular dynamics.”

When pressed further, Dalio defined human rights as a “political” issue and questioned his country’s respect of its citizens’ liberties.

“I look at the United States and I say, ‘Well, what’s going on in the United States and should I not invest in the United States because our own human rights issues and other things?’ and I’m not trying to make political comparisons,” he said. “I basically just trying to follow the rules understand what’s going on and invest properly.”

Dalio then insisted that whereas the U.S. is a “country of individuals and individualism,” he viewed China’s government as “extension of the family — as a top-down country, what they are doing is they behave like a strict parent. That is their approach, we have our approach.”

Dalio did not publicly respond to Romney’s tweet.

Photo: Ray Dalio, Moritz Hager/World Economic Forum via Flickr