Washington politicians are urging Wall Street executives to accept new curbs on American investments in China in the name of U.S. security.

Leaders of a bipartisan House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party traveled to New York City this week to argue that financial entanglements with China have helped America's primary adversary advance its technological and military capabilities, and that the pursuit of profits has made U.S. financial executives largely blind to those risks. The upshot: U.S. financial houses, pension funds and university endowments have unwittingly provided the financial underpinning for China's buildup.

"They put on their golden blindfolds and chase a yield that never comes," Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.), the committee chairman, said at a public hearing on Tuesday.