Democratic VP Front-Runner Started a Spy Technology Company Partially Funded by China
Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, is under scrutiny after being considered a potential vice presidential candidate for the 2024 election alongside President Biden. Reports suggest that he has emerged as a leading candidate for Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, ahead of other figures like Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
This attention has led to questions regarding Kelly’s past business dealings, particularly relating to China. Kelly co-founded a company called World View, which initially focused on space tourism using balloons. However, Tencent, a major Chinese company known for its ties to the Chinese government, was one of the initial founders of World View. The company has since shifted its focus to providing surveillance and remote sensing services and has collaborated with various industries including energy and shipping.
In 2014, Kelly met David Wallerstein, the head of Tencent USA, to discuss World View’s technology, which he later downplayed as a brief conversation. Although he relinquished control of the company when he entered politics, he still has investments in it through a blind trust. The scrutiny around Kelly intensified in 2023 when Chinese surveillance balloons traversed U.S. airspace, raising national security concerns and drawing attention to the implications of Kelly’s business associations.
Arizona Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly faced increased scrutiny following news that he may become the Vice President nominee on the 2024 presidential election Democratic ticket.
Kelly found himself on the top of a shortlist of Vice President Kamala Harris’s potential running mates, above names such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, The Hill reported.
The increased scrutiny has raised questions about Kelly’s dealings with China.
As reported by Fox News, Kelly co-founded World View, a company that originally aimed to provide customers with space tourism using balloons.
One of the company’s earliest founders was Tencent, notoriously one of the largest companies in communist China, which the Chinese government therefore controls.
Perhaps most famously, the company runs the Chinese social media app WeChat, which serves as a “powerful surveillance tool for the Chinese government” that collects users’ personal information, search history, messages and so on, as reported by Fox News.
Over the years, what once started as a mere tourism company expanded its offerings.
World View balloons now provide clients with surveillance and “remote sensing services.”
Those clients have included companies dealing in lucrative industries like oil and gas, utilities, mining, shipping and insurance, to name a few.
As World View’s technology and business plan advanced, however, it began to grow a relationship with China.
Kelly held a meeting with the head of Tencent USA David Wallerstein in 2014. Accoridng to reports, Kelly introduced Wallerstein to World View’s “space tourism technology.”
The Arizona senator later downplayed the meeting as a short conversation.
When Kelly chose to run for senate, he gave up all company control. However, the senator remains invested in World View through a blind trust.
Notably, China famously sent surveillance balloons over the U.S. in 2023, generating great controversy.
The Department of Defense later revealed the same sorts of Chinese surveillance balloons were sent to many other countries as well.
“We were able to determine that China has a high-altitude balloon program for intelligence collection that’s connected to the People’s Liberation Army. It was operating during the previous administration, but they did not detect it. We detected it. We tracked it. And, we have been carefully studying it to learn as much as we can,” said John Kirby, the coordinator for strategic communication at the White House National Security Council.
“We know that these [Chinese] surveillance balloons have crossed over dozens of countries on multiple continents around the world, including some of our closest allies and partners.”
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