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Before he became a senator, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) was not only an astronaut, but also a co-founder of a company specializing in spy balloons that was funded in part by Chinese venture capitalists with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Kelly, who is reportedly on the shortlist of potential vice-presidential candidates being considered by Vice President Kamala Harris, co-founded Tucson, Arizona-based World View in 2012 with a vision to offer space tourism via stratospheric balloons.
Kelly's company started with a focus on balloon space travel, but its vision evolved as its technology matured.
“As our technology matures, we recognized an immediate opportunity to leverage our technology through remote sensing services to defense, scientific and commercial customers,” a Worldview spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “Currently, our primary business is providing remote sensing services to the U.S. Department of Defense and its allies through intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, as well as serving NASA, NOAA and other scientific organizations to better understand Earth from the unique atmospheric layer of the stratosphere.”
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Senator Mark Kelly speaks with reporters as he waits to board the Senate subway from the U.S. Capitol to the Hart Senator Office Building, in Washington, DC, on July 25, 2024. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Axios reported that shortly after World View was founded, it received venture capital from Tencent in 2013, and then again in 2016.
Tencent is one of China's largest companies and was founded in 1998 by “Pony” Ma Huateng, Zhang Zhidong, Xu Chenye, Chen Yidan and Zeng Liqing. Last year, “Pony” Ma Huateng was listed as China's fourth-richest person by Forbes magazine with a net worth of $32.1 billion. Ma is also the CEO of Tencent.
The Wall Street Journal reported in 2021 that Tencent had been collecting large amounts of data for years from China's dominant social media platform and mobile app WeChat. The data was collected primarily through handling chat conversations and financial transactions for more than 1 billion monthly active users in China. This has reportedly made the company's platform WeChat a powerful surveillance tool for the Chinese government, which has regulated Tencent and regularly suppressed dissent.
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In this photo provided by Chad Fish, a giant balloon drifts over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday, February 4, with fighter jets and contrails visible below. (Chad Fish via The Associated Press)
Regarding Tencent's ties to the Chinese government, World View told Fox News Digital on Saturday that Tencent has “no access, no opinion and no control” over the company.
“Current management believes it was a mistake to accept the Chinese investment at the time,” a company spokesman said. “When new management took over in 2019 and learned of the investment, they acted swiftly to ensure World View was protected from any engagement by representatives of Chinese investors.”
But with Kerry under consideration as a potential vice presidential candidate, the company's earlier ties to Chinese financiers could raise questions, especially after China flew a surveillance balloon over the U.S. in February 2023 that was eventually shot down by a fighter jet off the coast of South Carolina.
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Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly is a co-founder of a company that specializes in spy balloons and is funded in part by Chinese venture capitalists with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. (Associated Press/Ross D. Franklin)
The incident has raised tensions between the United States and China, along with concerns that the Chinese government is spying on America.
Kelly left his role at World View in 2019 to prepare for a run for the U.S. Senate.
A company spokesman added that Kelly's remaining financial interest in World View is protected by a blind trust and that Kelly relinquished all access, interest and control over the company when he left.
Axios reported that in 2014, former World View CEO Jane Poynter told Chinese news outlet Pengpaibao that Kelly had met with Tencent USA president David Wallerstein and “introduced space tourism technology.”
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Chinese balloons fly over the United States, sparking tensions between the two countries. (Reuters/Dad Lubic/Illustration/File Photo)
Kelly told the Arizona Republic in 2020 that he had a “very brief conversation” with the Tencent individual, lasting between 30 seconds and a minute.
Kelly did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital for this story.
The New York Times published an article on Kerry on Friday highlighting the Navy veteran's achievements in politics. The paper interviewed Republican activist Daniel Scarpinato, who weighed in on the issues Kerry might face if selected as the vice presidential nominee.
“Mr. Kerry has never faced the rigorous scrutiny of a national campaign and is burdened with potential political liabilities, including a high-altitude surveillance balloon company he co-founded with a Chinese venture capitalist,” The New York Times quoted Mr. Scarpinato as saying.
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Scarpinato was unavailable for further comment.
In addition to providing monitoring services, World View also offers remote sensing services to oil and gas companies, utility companies, mining and shipping companies, and insurance companies.