Akademiker Pension, formerly known as MP Pension, has become the first Danish pension fund to exclude China from its investment universe due to human rights violations.

It must now sell DKK 400m worth of government bonds and shares, as a result of the decision of the fund’s management and unanimous board.

“We have long had China under observation. It is well known that the country systematically violates human rights, and we can no longer turn a blind eye to it," AkademikerPension director Jens Munch Holst, stated.

It specifically stated that it has issues with China’s recent security law introduced in Hong Kong, it’s treatment of the minority Uighur population and its use of the death penalty and persecution of minorities and political opponents.

"Our ambition in AkademikerPension is to sharpen the profile when it comes to responsibility. Our motto is that return and responsibility must go hand in hand, and when we talk about responsibility it is difficult to argue that we should keep China in our portfolio,” Munch Holst stated.

In the past, AkademikerPension has excluded a large number of countries such as Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Iran.

"Our most important task in AkademikerPension is to ensure that our members get good pensions to live on when they need it. But we also take on a social responsibility, and that is in the context that our divestment of China must be seen,” Munch Holst concluded.

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