What began as a concern of a group of Texas environmentalists has resulted in state law to protect “critical infrastructure” from “hostile nations” toward the United States.
The so-called Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act, which came into force in July, specifically covers companies in China, Russia, North Korea and Iran and prohibits them from accessing infrastructure such as the electricity grid, the water and cybersecurity system.
However, co-author of the law, state Sen. Donna Campbell, makes no secret that the idea arose specifically from the presence of the Chinese tycoon Sun Guangxin in Green Valley County, Near the border with Mexico.
December 2016 the businessman and ex-military has bought 140,000 hectares in an area crossed by the Devils, one of Texas’ most pristine rivers and home to several endangered species, and where Laughlin Air Force Base is also located, a training ground for military pilots.
The estimated price of the land is 110 million US dollars (Dollars), according to a recent report by Forbes.
After investigating Sun’s investments in Green Valley, Campbell came to the conclusion that “He looked like a Trojan horse“, He told the American network CNBC.
And he added: “If hostile countries invaded our infrastructure, it could be catastrophic.”
Who is Sun Guangxin?
In accordance with Forbes, Sun is an example of a billionaire who made himself.
He was born in 1962 in Xinjiang, a region in the northwest of the country that in recent years has been in the news for allegations of abuse and even genocide against the Uighur Muslim ethnicity by the Chinese government.
He served in the army and in 1979 fighting in the Sino-Vietnamese war, in which he reached the captain’s array.
Upon his return, he settled in Urumchi, the capital of Xinjiang, and became a food entrepreneur. He then diversified his investment portfolio into areas as diverse as the import of oil drilling equipment and real estate.
The common factor has always been his contacts with businessmen, the military and influential members of the Communist Party, to which Sun belongs., Writes James Millward, professor of history at Georgetown University in the United States, in his recent book Eurasian crossroads (“Eurasian Crossroads”).
Sun went from being the son of a farmer to founding and chairing the Guanghui Group, “an expanding conglomerate that last year it generated more than US $ 29 billion in revenue and employs more than 108,000 people“He says Forbes.
The magazine, which calls him a “reserved billionaire,” estimates that Sun’s net worth is $ 2.1 billion, Which places it at number 1,750 in its list of the richest people in the world and at position 293 in the respective ranking of China.
From ecological threat to military
The first to notice Sun’s presence were environmentalists from the Devils River Conservation Group (DRC), who in 2017 were alarmed by something that at first glance may seem contradictory: the creation of a wind farm.
According to DRC in a statement issued in June, they were initially concerned about the impacts on the karst aquifer (groundwater resource), endangered species, wildlife observation basins, values of private property, dark skies, migratory birds and bats “.
However, they later expanded their concerns to “national security issues with the base of the Air Force and the Ercot network, ”that is, the organization that operates the Texas power grid.
It was these arguments that finally caught the attention of politicians.
Since last year, various state and national congressmen have told the media that windmills seek to gather military intelligence to prevent the training of pilots, or that by connecting to the power grid of Texas was able to unleash a cyberattack, disrupt the power supply, or cause deliberate outages.
In July 2020, for example, U.S. Senators for Texas Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, along with former Congressman Will Hurd, sent a letter to then-U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asking him to investigate the wind farm.
“There is concern about one project with links to the Communist Party of China which is so close to the area where pilots train that it could threaten our competitive advantage and our national security, ”the letter says.
Specifically, he was asked by the U.S. Foreign Investment Committee (Cfius) to investigate potential risks to national security, which he did. But to the displeasure of local authorities, at the end of the year the project passed federal inspections.
“Why do we allow a Chinese company to do this project in the US? A former American general could not do this kind of project in China,” Hurd told Hurd magazine last year. Foreign policy.
Stephen Lindsey, spokesman for one of the Guanghui Group’s US subsidiaries, GH America, now told Forbes that Sun’s wind farm received federal approval for its “over-compliance with the regulatory structure”.
In turn, Lindsey said GH America The new Texas law is expected not to affect their business plans.
In this regard, Campbell has acknowledged to the media that the law is not retroactive, but says he is working to curb a project that he still considers worrying.
Another explanation
For years, ostentation has been well regarded in China. However, today the millionaire entrepreneurs face increasingly stringent government regulations.
The most famous case is that of Jack Ma and his e-commerce giant Alibaba, which this April received a fine of US $ 2.8 billion for abusing its position in the Chinese market for years.
Such is the influence of this and other companies that different analysts have told the BBC that there is a political message behind the growing antagonism of government with the private sector: nothing can be bigger or more powerful in the lives of Chinese citizens than the Communist Party.
That’s why journalist John Hyatt, a specialist in billionaires Forbes, Speculate: “Sun may just want to take money out of China, like many of its compatriots“.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-internacional-58562800, IMPORT DATE: 2021-09-14 21:30:06