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# FTSE Russell will add Chinese government debt to its key indexes

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FTSE Russell will add Chinese government debt to its key indexes
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In this photo taken on September 4, 2020, a man walks with the Chinese national... — In this photo taken on September 4, 2020, a man walks with the Chinese national flag in a park next to the Yangtze River in Wuhan, China’s central Hubei province.

hector retamal/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

FTSE Russell is set to add Chinese government debt to its key indexes, a move that could attract more than $100 billion of foreign capital.

The inclusion will push China’s markets further into the mainstream for international investors—even as investing in Chinese assets becomes increasingly politically controversial in the U.S. amid broader tensions between the two nations over issues from trade and technology to the coronavirus.

The decision means Chinese securities will soon be included in another major market benchmark. That effectively makes them a must-own for many institutions that either passively track an index or aim to beat its performance.

FTSE Russell had already added shares trading in Shanghai and Shenzhen to key stock gauges, as have rivals MSCI and S&P Dow Jones Indices. But it was the last major holdout among bond-index compilers, after inclusions by Bloomberg LP and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Chinese bonds are set to be added to FTSE Russell’s flagship World Government Bond Index over 12 months starting in October 2021. China’s bond market is the world’s second largest.

An expanded version of this report can be found on WSJ.com

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