A Chinese company is facing resistance to building a wind farm in Texas, a project near a U.S. military base that is considered a “Trojan horse” for the Chinese Communist Party, and state lawmakers are working to pass legislation to block the project to prevent the Communist Party from threatening the security of critical U.S. infrastructure.
In 2015, a company called GH America Energy bought about 140,000 acres of land in Val Verde County, Texas, with the intention of building a wind farm there, the Voice of America reported May 15. But the “Blue Mountain Wind Farm” project has been controversial since it was first announced.
“The Blue Mountain Wind Farm project is located less than 70 miles from Laughlin Air Force Base, the largest pilot training base in the United States.
“GH American Energy, which has a Communist military background, is a subsidiary of the Chinese listed company Guanghui Energy, which is owned by Sun Guangxin, known as the “richest man in Xinjiang”.
Sun Guangxin graduated from Xi’an Army Academy and served in the Chinese Communist Army for nearly 10 years, participating in the Sino-Vietnam War. He began doing business after his discharge from the military and has served on the Standing Committee of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region’s Political Consultative Conference, among other positions.
Texas Senator Donna Campbell Sen. Donna Campbell (R-Texas) is one of the leaders of the opposition to the Blue Mountain Wind Farm project. She said, “When you look deeper into this project, it’s more like a Trojan horse.”
The project proposes to build 700-foot-tall wind turbines, which is two or three hundred feet higher than normal wind turbines. In addition, the project plans to build a 10,000-foot runway near the wind farm. But suspiciously, the site chosen for this wind power project is a “not very windy place”.
In July 2020, Texas U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) said the project would be located in a “less windy” area. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) are the only ones who have been involved in the project. In July 2020, Texas U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and then Texas U.S. Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) sent a joint letter to then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, raising similar concerns about the Blue Hill Wind Farm project.
In the letter, the lawmakers said, “Laughlin Air Force Base is our world-class training ground for Air Force pilots, many of whom are future F-35 and B-21 pilots. There is concern that a program with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, so close to the area where these pilots train, could threaten our competitive advantage and national security.”
Another concern about the Blue Mountain Wind Farm, according to the report, is the security of the infrastructure.
Once the Blue Hills Wind Farm is completed, it will be connected to the Texas power grid, one of the three largest in the United States. The Chinese Communist Party will have access to the technology, data, software and hardware of this important U.S. grid. This will give Chinese hackers the opportunity to launch cyber attacks on the U.S. grid.
Donna K. Campbell said. A breach of our infrastructure would pose a threat to our national security,” Campbell said. There is no evidence yet that the Chinese company intends to do this, but this project would put the U.S. power grid under the influence of a hostile country. By connecting to our infrastructure, they would be able to gather intelligence and learn about our state’s vulnerabilities, as well as threaten other critical infrastructure.”
Her concerns are not limited to the Blue Mountain Wind Farm project; in her view, no Chinese company should be allowed to get involved in critical U.S. infrastructure.
She emphasized that “the Chinese Communist Party has a policy that any company that is Chinese owned is subject to the control of the Chinese Communist Party,” she said.
Since the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the federal agency responsible for reviewing the impact of foreign investment on U.S. national security, gave the “Blue Mountain Wind Farm” project the green light in 2020 ” project was given the green light. Texas lawmakers decided to block the project at the state level.
Sen. Senator Campbell has introduced the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act.) The bill prohibits companies from “hostile nations” such as the Chinese Communist Party, Russia, Iran and North Korea from participating in critical infrastructure in Texas.
This includes not allowing these foreign companies to invest or participate in the construction of critical infrastructure in Texas, to acquire local critical infrastructure businesses, or to connect their projects to the state’s critical infrastructure, among other things.
The bill passed unanimously in the Texas Senate in April and is currently under consideration in the state House of Representatives.
Sen. Campbell hopes the bill will stop the Blue Hill Wind Farm project, “which is a matter of our national security.
She also called on other states to take action to secure their own critical infrastructure. “This is happening right under our noses, and no one is looking at the potential vulnerability of our infrastructure. I think other states need to wake up and look at what’s happening in their own states as well.”
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