September 22, 2020 Mr. David M. Solomon Chairman and CEO , Inc. New York, NY 10282

Dear Mr. Solomon:

I am writing to notify you and your fellow members of the Board of Directors of Goldman Sachs that your firm is engaged in fundraising for a company tied to the military of a hostile power, namely the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of the Chinese Communist Party. The Committee on the Present Danger: China is deeply troubled by Goldman Sach’s assistance to state-owned China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina) in its sale of an estimated $2.4 billion worth of dollar- denominated bonds and another $590 million in euro-denominated bonds entails untenable material risks.

That is particularly the case given the Pentagon’s official designation of the enterprise as a “Communist Chinese military company.” You have a fiduciary duty to disclose such risks in plain English to prospective investors, not impenetrable legalese.

An analysis conducted by the independent research firm RWR Advisory Group identifies the People’s Liberation Army’s ChemChina as a state-owned enterprise that is a prime example of the CCP’s bid to achieve “civil-military” fusion with the dual-use products of such companies.

National Economic Council Director Lawrence Kudlow and National Security Advisor to the President Robert O’Brien served notice concerning the dangers of investing in such Chinese companies in a letter to the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board dated July 1, 2020. They warned:

We write to you in the interest of protecting American investors, as it has come to our attention that the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) is permitting hundreds of millions of dollars of railroad workers' retirement assets to be invested in companies from the People's Republic of China (PRC)….Many of these companies operate in violation of U.S. sanction laws and assist the PRC's efforts to build its military and oppress religious minorities. * * * Further, the NRRI Trust is investing in the PRC during a time of mounting uncertainty concerning the PRC's relations with the rest of the world. Such concerns include the

PresentDangerChina.org | 2020 Pennsylvania Ave, NW Suite 347 | Washington, D.C. 20006 possibility of future sanctions or boycotts that may arise for a wide range of issues, including the culpable action of the Chinese government with respect to the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the suppression of Hong Kong's democracy, the purchase of Iranian oil in

contravention of U.S. sanctions, gross human rights violations in the Xinjiang region, the militarization of the South China Sea and threats to freedom of navigation. (Emphasis added throughout.)

Worse yet, the effect of your company’s efforts to help underwrite the operations of a corporation identified by the U.S. Department of Defense as a Communist Chinese military company is to elevate the risks for all Americans. General Secretary Xi Jinping has made no secret of his determination to have China supplant the United States as the world’s leading power, by force if necessary. In fact, in May 2019, the CCP announced a “People’s War” against the United States, the latest phase of the strategy the Party has been pursuing for over two decades called “unrestricted warfare”– a multifaceted and comprehensive plan explicitly aimed at destroying this country.1

In short, Goldman Sachs is aiding and abetting PLA activities and capabilities that enable a growing and increasingly existential threat to our country.

The magnitude of that threat at this juncture is approximated in a report to Congress the Pentagon released earlier this month. The Defense Department’s analysis makes clear, moreover, that the CCP’s ambition is to intensify it further in the decade ahead. If anything, this report understates the magnitude of the danger we will soon be confronting from the PRC – especially if U.S. investors continue, mostly unwittingly, to provide the financial resources that will underwrite the further metastasizing of that danger in size and scope.

The Committee on the Present Danger: China believes that it is the patriotic – and fiduciary – duty of Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street investment banks to cease and desist from fundraising for known PLA-affiliated companies. We are actively encouraging the U.S. government to: sanction companies on the Pentagon’s PLA list; prohibit American fund managers and others from raising funds for them; and forbid this country’s investors from holding their debt and equity. You are on notice of this additional, prospective material risk and the fiduciary implications of any failure to apprise the investing public of this possibility.

We would be grateful if you would ensure that every member of Goldman Sachs Board is provided with a copy of this letter. Please confirm its receipt and respond to its content.

Sincerely,

Brian T. Kennedy Chairman

1 See Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America Paperback (1999) by Senior Colonel Qiao Liang, People’s Liberation Army, and Senior Colonel Wang Xiangsui, People’s Liberation Army.

cc: President Donald J. Trump and other Senior U.S. Government Executive and Legislative Branch Officials and Securities Regulators Goldman Sachs Board of Directors M. Michele Burns, Member, GS Risk Committee Drew Faust, Member, GS Governance and Public Responsibilities Committees Mark Flaherty, Member, GS Governance and Risk Committees Ellen Kullman, Chair, GS Public Responsibilities and Member, GS Governance Committees , Member, GS Public Responsibilities and Governance Committees Adebayo Oguniesi, Chair, GS Governance and Member, Public Responsibilities Committees , Lead Director, Member, GS Governance and Risk Committees Jan Tighe. Member, GS Governance and Risk Committees David Viniar, Member, GS Risk Committee Mark Winkelman, Chair, GS Risk and Member, Governance Committees