Democratic VP Front-Runner Linked to China-Funded Spy Technology Company

VP CANDIDATE Tied to CHINA-FUNDED Spy Tech

Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, came under more attention after it was revealed that he would run for vice president on the Democratic ticket in the 2024 presidential election.

 

According to The Hill, Kelly was at the top of a shortlist of potential running mates for Vice President Kamala Harris, ahead of candidates like Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, and Pete Buttigieg, the secretary of transportation.

 

There are now concerns regarding Kelly’s interactions with China due to the heightened scrutiny.

 

According to Fox News, Kelly was a co-founder of World View, a business that was first focused on deploying balloons to offer space tourism to clients.

 

Tencent, which is infamous for being among the biggest businesses in communist China and is thus under Chinese government control, was among the company’s initial founders.

 

The firm is primarily known for running WeChat, a Chinese social media app that gathers personal data, search histories, chats, and other information from users and is used by the Chinese government as a “powerful surveillance tool,” according to Fox News.

What was previously only a travel agency has since grown to offer other services. Today, World View balloons offer “remote sensing services” and monitoring to their clients. Among those clients have been businesses engaged in profitable industries such as mining, shipping, insurance, oil and gas, utilities, and mining.

 

But as World View’s commercial strategy and technology developed, it started to forge closer ties with China.

 

In 2014, Kelly met with David Wallerstein, the CEO of Tencent USA. Kelly reportedly exposed Wallerstein to the “space tourism technology” offered by World View. Later, the senator from Arizona played down the meeting, characterizing it as a brief chat.

 

Kelly forfeited all business control when he decided to run for the Senate. But the senator has a blind trust that keeps him involved with World View.

 

Notably, in 2023, China flew surveillance balloons above the United States that were much criticized.

 

Subsequently, the Department of Defense disclosed that numerous other nations received similar Chinese surveillance balloons.

We were able to ascertain that the People’s Liberation Army is linked to China’s high-altitude balloon intelligence-gathering operation. Even if it was in operation throughout the previous government, they were unaware of it. We found it. We located it. John Kirby, the White House National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communication, added, “And we have been closely studying it to learn as much as we can.”

 

“Some of our closest allies and partners are among the dozens of countries on multiple continents that these [Chinese] surveillance balloons have crossed over.”