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In an open letter to Lisa Nandy, UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, 11 global freedom of expression and human rights organisations raised urgent concerns over the potential acquisition of the UK's Telegraph Media Group by investment firm RedBird Capital, over its ties to China.

"RedBird Capital’s ties to China, including through its chairman, John L Thornton, threaten media pluralism, transparency, and information integrity in the UK", a statement reads.

Citing international, European, and national standards, the organizations call on the Secretary of State to use her powers to initiate an investigation on grounds of public interest and foreign influence, and in the meantime to place the merger on hold.

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RedBird Capital’s founder, Gerry Cardinale, spent several years with Goldman Sachs in the 1990s building the firm’s investments in China, Hong Kong, and Singapore, while its Chairman John L. Thornton’s ‘solid Chinese connections’ are not historical or incidental, but ongoing.

Thornton sits on the International Advisory Council of the China Investment Corporation, China’s largest sovereign wealth fund, and chaired the Silk Road Finance Corporation, both vehicles through which China has pursued financial influence. He has also served in advisory roles for the Confucius Institute, which the Henry Jackson Society and Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation identified in a 2022 report as a direct extension of the Chinese Communist Party Propaganda Department in the UK.  

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