A proposed wind farm project in west Texas has become a potential national security issue because of its Chinese owners’ ties to the Communist regime and the People’s Liberation Army, experts say.
Since 2015, a Chinese-owned company called GH America Investment Group has purchased 130,000 acres of land in Val Verde County, Texas, an area the size of Tulsa, Oklahoma, or half the size of Hong Kong. As previously reported by the Epoch Times, the investment company is owned by Sun Guangxin, a businessman from Xinjiang, China, who has been described in the Hong Kong media as a “speculative businessman” with close ties to the Chinese Communist regime.
According to business magazine Forbes, Guanghui Energy’s founder, Sun Guangxin, is a former PLA officer and the richest man in western Xinjiang, with a net worth of $1.9 billion. He also served as vice chairman of the Xinjiang Provincial Youth Federation.
A 2004 report in the South China Morning Post (link) described Sun as a “controversial figure” and a “carpetbagger.
According to the South China Morning Post, Sun has created huge fortunes by acquiring state-owned assets at bargain prices. He took over more than half of the real estate in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang.
Sun’s investment company acquired the Texas land to build a wind farm with a proposal to build 50 to 130 wind turbines.
A CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) panel chaired by the Treasury Department reviewed the acquisition and found that the wind farm did not pose a national security threat. However, an expert familiar with the project told The Epoch Times that there are a number of potential national security concerns regarding China’s control of the land.
The first concern is that the wind farm involves critical infrastructure that could pose a risk to the Texas power grid. A potential cyberattack on the grid could disrupt the power company’s operations and lead to massive power outages.
For example, a grid attack that occurred in the western U.S. in March 2019 disrupted electric utility systems in California, Utah and Wyoming for several hours.
The U.S. Department of Energy found that “cyber and physical security-related incidents at electric utilities across the United States are steadily increasing and continue to cause concern.”
In addition, allowing a Chinese company to connect to the U.S. power grid has raised serious cybersecurity concerns. Outgoing Texas Republican Rep. Will Hurd has repeatedly warned about the project, urging the government to “prevent foreign cyber attacks on Texas energy infrastructure.”
In a July op-ed, Hurd complained that “the federal government is not moving fast enough to stop it, and the state lacks the power to stop it.”
He wrote, “Allowing adversaries to connect to our grid allows attackers to conduct a false data injection attack, allowing attackers to trick the system’s monitoring tools into falsely believing that activity is occurring on the grid.”
On May 1, President Trump issued an executive order to strengthen the ability of large U.S. electric systems to respond to such “malicious” cyber attacks.
In the executive order, Trump highlighted the risks, noting that “a successful attack on our large electric systems would pose significant risks to our economy, human health and security, and reduce the ability of the United States to act to protect itself and its allies.”
Approximately 95 percent of the land in Texas is privately owned. Private ownership combined with Texas’ lax regulations make it easier for foreign buyers to purchase property.
In Texas, it is also difficult for authorities to interfere with wind farm development because then-Gov. George W. Bush signed a bill on electric utility restructuring in 1999 that mandated the development of renewable energy generation.
National security experts say the planned wind farm is located within 30 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border and is also close to Laughlin Air Force Base, the largest Air Force pilot training facility in the United States. This could pose a number of problems, including cybersecurity threats to flight training, intelligence gathering on flight patterns and pilots, and electronic surveillance of the Mexican border.
“Sun Guangxin reportedly overpaid for land in Val Verde County, and Blue Hills Wind appears to be his only renewable energy project in the United States.” Daniel Hoffman, a former CIA intelligence station chief, said in a Fox News op-ed.
He wrote, “In addition to gathering intelligence on U.S. border security operations and connecting key Texas infrastructure, including its power grid, China could use Sun Guangxin’s wind farm venture as a cover to gather intelligence on nearby Loughlin Air Force Base, the Air Force’s most important training facility, which graduates hundreds of airmen each year.”
Texas lawmakers, military officials, local leaders and activists have been tracking the case for the past two years.
Since 2015, GH American Energy has purchased 10 ranches in Val Verde County. According to the San Antonio Express-News in June, Sun Guangxin has claimed one of the large ranches, formerly known as Morning Star Ranch, for private use.
The newspaper said, “It has high fences, a large hunting lodge and a jetway, and he reportedly visits regularly.”
A Nov. 4 report by Moody’s Investors Service showed that GH America Investment Group, whose parent company is Guanghui Group, will have its 40.9 percent stake acquired by Shenergy Group Co, a state-owned company owned by the Shanghai government.
“If the acquisition is completed, Shenergy will become the second largest shareholder of Guanghui.” The report said.
In July 2020, U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Representative Will Hurd sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin raising concerns about the wind farm project.
The letter said, “(The Treasury Secretary) as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), you have primary jurisdiction to review this matter given CFIUS’s jurisdiction over proposed investment transactions in close proximity to military installations.”
The letter added that Loughlin Air Force Base is one of the key installations nearby.
“The facility 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 project with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, so close to the area where these pilots train, could threaten our competitive advantage and national security.” The lawmakers said in the letter.
The lawmakers requested a classified briefing to address these national security concerns.
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