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2 months ago
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A senior Texas Senator has demanded the Pentagon shut down a vast wind farm linked to a Chinese billionaire citing a major threat to national security, DailyMail.com can reveal.
John Cornyn has said that former People's Liberation Army (PLA) captain Sun Guangxin 'likely plans' to use dozens of 700-foot high wind turbines to spy on a nearby Air Force base 'at the behest of the Chinese government'.
In a letter written to Department of Defense (DoD) executive director Steve Sample on July 10, obtained by DailyMail.com, Senator Cornyn called for the project to be 'terminated' until the Senate can carry out a full investigation into the threat it poses to the U.S. military.
Mr Sun sparked fury among ranchers and politicians alike after he splashed an estimated $110million on 130,000 acres of land in Val Verde County, Texas, between 2016 and 2018.
Former People's Liberation Army captain Sun Guangxin had planned to build a 46-turbine wind farm in Val Verde County, Texas, before it was blocked on national security grounds
Sun sold the rights to the wind farm and the underlying land to a Spanish firm last year, but there are fears he may have retained an interest in the property, with sources citing a deal he struck with a French firm that operates Rocksprings wind farm (pictured) on land he owns, from which he earns royalties
Texas Senator John Cornyn warned in a letter to the Pentagon that Sun 'likely' still has 'influence and involvement in the project' and called for an urgent investigation
This included a 15,000-acre ranch on which he planned to build 46 towering wind turbines, 30 miles from Laughlin Air Force Base.
The project has long sparked fears of an espionage plot, with former intelligence officials highlighting Mr Sun's close ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
It was blocked by the Texas electric grid in 2022 under a state law prohibiting companies controlled by hostile nations from gaining access to critical infrastructure.
This ultimately forced Mr Sun, via his U.S. subsidiary GH America, to sell the rights to develop the Blue Hills Wind Farm to Spanish energy firm Greenalia for a reported $15million in June last year, allowing the project to proceed.
But in his letter to the DoD, Senator Cornyn cites 'the belief that the Chinese are still involved' in the project.
'We believe Mr Sun has owner-financed the land purchase with Greenalia and likely has influence and involvement in the project,' he added.
Allowing it to proceed 'without fully understanding any ongoing connection to the Chinese is unwise and short-sighted', he said.
A privately-commissioned report written by former intelligence officials in 2019 suggested Mr Sun's links to the CCP could provide Beijing an opportunity to leverage his business interests for national security objectives.
His close ties to the Chinese state are also documented in the book Eurasian Crossings: A History of Xinjiang, by Georgetown University professor James Millward.
The book claims Sun opened a branch of the CCP within his own company during the 1990s and poached a party secretary away from a state-owned firm to lead it.
His political connections helped him acquire state-owned enterprises, Millward wrote.
DailyMail.com understands Mr Sun is now seeking to offload his entire Texan property empire following a backlash from locals.
Sun was born into a working-class family in Xinjiang province but has amassed an estimated net worth of $2.9billion with the help of his close political and military connections
Sun's unprecedented land grab means he owns 7 percent of all land in Val Verde County via his subsidiary companies Brazos Highland and Harvest Texas. The site of his proposed wind farm sits to the north east of the county, but he already earns royalties from wind turbines operated on his land by a French firm at Rocksprings
Sun bought more than 130,000 acres of farmland in Texas between 2016 and 2018 for an estimated $110million. Pictured: The gates to his headquarters in the region, Morning Star
Pictured: Sun's main living quarters in Val Verde County, Morning Star ranch
Senator Cornyn's intervention comes after GH America sued the Electric Reliability Council of Texas [ERCOT, the state grid] last month, alleging its use of state law to block the project was unconstitutional.
In a 21-page complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, the firm argued that the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act violated the U.S. constitution's supremacy clause.
The filings claim that 'the power to deal with national security threats' and 'regulate foreign commerce, are the domain of the federal government'.
GH America is seeking an as yet undetermined sum in damages and that the court declare ERCOT's decision to block it from connecting to the state grid as 'null and void'.
A spokesman for the company told DailyMail.com that Greenalia had 'acquired the Blue Hills Project and the underlying land and is not subject to oversight or control by GHAE or its affiliates'.
'Regarding the purported 'threats to U.S. national security' referenced in Senator Cornyn's letter, the Blue Hills project was thoroughly vetted and finally approved by the federal Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. [CFIUS] in 2022,' the spokesman added.
'The Project was scrutinized and approved by the U.S. Air Force precisely because GH America agreed to mitigate national security concerns arising from the Project's proximity to Laughlin Air Force Base.
'There is no factual basis for any asserted national security threats for the Blue Hills Project or any project that GH America has sought to engage in, all of which are subject to the continual oversight of CFIUS, including the U.S. Department of Defense.'
There are growing fears over Chinese businesses setting up shop close to U.S. military facilities.
Last year, the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota, vetoed a proposed $700 million corn mill development by Chinese-owned Fufeng Group, after the U.S. Air Force, which has a base 12 miles away, expressed its opposition to the project on national security grounds.
English (US)