Politician and favorite to be Kamala’s VP, Astronaut Mark Kelly has not faced the harsh spotlight of a national campaign, and has potential political liabilities like a high-altitude surveillance balloon company he helped found with Chinese venture capital, (Republican operative) Mr. Scarpinato said.
An Arizona company that manufactures and operates high-altitude surveillance balloons, and contracts with the federal government, faces renewed attention in the aftermath of the destruction of a spy balloon sent by the Chinese government that entered U.S. airspace earlier this month.
As recently as seven years ago, the company secured funds from Chinese investors. Tucson-based World View, cofounded by now-U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly in 2012, received venture capital from Tencent — among the largest tech companies in China — both in 2013 and 2016.
Tencent, like most Chinese tech giants, has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Yes, but: World View president and CEO Ryan Hartman told The Arizona Republic in 2020 that Tencent had “zero access, zero input and zero control” over the company.
When Tencent made its investments, World View was mostly focused on space tourism. Tencent says it stopped investing after the Arizona company pivoted to a defense-oriented business.
Today, World View contracts with the U.S. government and private companies to provide aerial surveillance via balloon.
About 65% of the company’s work last year was “defense related,” Hartman told Breaking Defense.
The Pentagon’s Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency examined World View in 2019 and cleared the company to handle military work, The Republic reported.
A high-altitude balloon sent by the Chinese government was downed by an American fighter aircraft off the coast of South Carolina in early February.
The U.S. government believes it was being used for surveillance purposes. That event escalated tensions between the U.S. and China and raised concerns over Chinese government surveillance and influence in American businesses.
