(Bloomberg) -- Carson Block, a longtime China skeptic, is giving the nation’s current stock market rally a miss, citing unreliability in corporate accounting and geopolitical risks.

“What I’ve been banging the drum about for 15 years is that the accounting of these companies, especially the ones that are public outside of China, the numbers cannot be trusted,” Block, the chief executive officer of investment research firm Muddy Waters Capital LLC, said in a Bloomberg TV interview on Tuesday in Singapore.

Block, whose firm rose to fame by uncovering fraud at some Chinese companies, had warned investors about buying local stocks in October as well. The MSCI China Index has gained about 10% since then as President Xi Jinping’s recent embrace of the private sector adds to optimism over DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence capabilities.

US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats, however, are posing risks, fueling global volatility amid geopolitical uncertainties. A risk of a potential military conflict between China and Taiwan is also making Block cautious.

If you are buying China, “you’re willing to take the risk that you wake up one day and China has gone to war to try to retake Taiwan, or has barricaded the island, and that that could lead to a kinetic war,” Block said.

Block said Chinese stocks have some momentum and as a short seller he “wouldn’t stand in front of this train at this point in time,” but doesn’t see the nation as a viable option for tactical investing. He is planning to visit India next week to explore starting a fund focused on Indian stocks.