After making the shortlist of prospective running mates for Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly is facing more scrutiny from the public as they wonder who Harris will pick to be her vice president if she wins the White House.
Recent reports place Kelly at the top of the list of prospective running mates for the Democratic ticket, alongside Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. One of the areas of scrutiny Kelly faces is his business deals with China amid rising tensions between the US and the Asian nation.
After digging into these dealings, journalists found that the Democratic senator co-founded a company called World View, which was established to provide space tourism services to customers through high-altitude balloons. Among the early co-founders of the company was Tencent, one of the biggest companies in China that’s most likely connected to and controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Tencent is the company that controls WeChat, a social media app used by the CCP to spy on its citizens by collecting data and personal information on users, including private messages and search histories.
World View began as a tourism business, but eventually expanded its services to include remote sensing and surveillance, and has had various top-spending clients from within the energy, mining, and utilities industries, as well as insurance and shipping among other industries. Over time, the technology improved and World View’s business plan shifted toward closer ties with China.
In 2014, Kelly met with David Wallerstein, head of the US branch of Tencent, and introduced him to the “space tourism technology” services provided by World View. When he decided to run for the US Senate, Kelly relinquished control of World View and downplayed his meeting with Wallerstein when questioned, claiming it was merely a brief conversation. Despite giving up control of the company, Kelly remains invested in it through a blind trust.
According to the Defense Department, the famous Chinese spy balloon shot down while flying over the US in 2023 used the same technology that World View utilizes in its services.
