Washington, D.C. — The National Republican Senatorial Committee today launched a new video explaining the well-documented surveillance history of the communist Chinese conglomerate invested in Mark Kelly and the company he co-founded, World View Enterprises.
“The Real Clear Politics and Arizona Republic reports that exposed the investments from an ‘arm of the Chinese Communist Party’ in Mark Kelly’s World View Enterprises make perfect sense when you find out what the company’s ‘spy balloons‘ are capable of,” said NRSC spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez. “Arizona deserves better than Kelly, who allowed the company he co-founded to put Americans’ privacy and civil liberties at risk while he enriched himself.”
Watch the video here and read a transcript below.
The video comes after Kelly’s ties to Boom Technology, yet another company with investments from a Chinese communist company, were exposed yesterday.
TRANSCRIPT
Why are Mark Kelly’s extensive ties to China so dangerous?
Let’s take a look at Tencent, the Chinese juggernaut that has invested heavily in Mark Kelly and his business exploits. With executives who have even donated to Mark Kelly’s Senate campaign.
On the surface, Tencent invests in entertainment, tech, internet services, and artificial intelligence. But as an agent of the Chinese Communist Party, Tencent assists in propaganda, censorship, and surveillance around the world.
As China experienced the first wave of COVID-19 infections, Tencent censored mentions of the sickness on their WeChat messaging app, keeping the rest of the world in the dark about the coming pandemic.
The Chinese Communist Party has also been advancing their global spying and surveillance efforts. In Africa using renovated buildings, in Latin America with satellites and aerospace facilities, and here in the United States, where Chinese hackers have infiltrated U.S. defense contractors.
China-based companies are required by law to share user data with China’s political authorities, and recent studies have shown that anyone using Tencent technology and apps, even outside of China, could be under political surveillance by the Chinese Communist Party.
Now Tencent has bought stock in World View, Mark Kelly’s balloon company. What would a Chinese company that invests in surveillance and censorship want with a hot air balloon company? Funny you should ask.
While initially built as a space tourism company, after Tencent’s 2016 investment, World View announced they would be expanding their Stratollite surveillance platform. Their balloons would use high-resolution cameras to provide imagery of the earth with a resolution sharp to 5 centimeters, far better than even satellites can offer, and at a much lower price. The balloons also have the capability to “loiter over a sensitive facility for continuous monitoring,” much longer than drones. Bloomberg called them “a new kind of surveillance.” Wired called them “giant surveillance balloons,” and Business Insider called them “spy balloons.”
Which begs the question – is the Chinese Communist Party spying on Americans through the surveillance company that made Kelly rich? The same company that has taken Arizona taxpayers’ dollars and a shady Chinese investment?
Once more for those in the back: Mark Kelly and his company created powerful surveillance technology that can be used to spy on Americans from the stratosphere.
And now the Chinese Communist Party has a stake in it.
Arizonans deserve better than someone who would put their privacy and civil liberties at risk just to enrich themselves.
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