How China attacks U.S. interests in Mississippi

• The next time you hear about how Amazon’s AI data centers in Mississippi might raise your power bills, remember that the source for this disinformation may just well be China.

In the first week of June, three United States Congressmen sent a letter to the Trump administration, including to the Director of the FBI, in order “to express our concerns regarding evidence that strongly suggests foreign influence campaigns targeting artificial intelligence (AI) development in the U.S.” The country these lawmakers are primarily concerned about is China.

Regrettably, I worry the Chinese are trying to undermine AI development in Mississippi, and all residents of the Magnolia State should be aware of these campaigns by Chinese intelligence operations. 

Keep in mind, the U.S. and China are in an AI arms race that’s as serious as our nuclear arms race was with the former Soviet Union. Like that contest, the winner of this high-stakes competition may well dominate the global economy and enjoy military supremacy. Therefore, it’s critical that the U.S. win this AI battle. 

This is why I am calling attention to a new report, which is designed to increase political opposition to Amazon’s AI investments in Mississippi. The report claims that massive investments by Amazon will be detrimental to average Mississippians. 

One of the most serious concerns is that the report was co-commissioned by an organization called Earthjustice, which has direct ties to the Chinese government through an organization called Energy Foundation China, or EFC. EFC is also affiliated with U.S. based Energy Foundation, or EF. 

Using the latest data, a recent report by a Louisiana think tank found: “Since 2006, Earthjustice has received $8.5 million from EFC and EF. These two groups were previously the same legal entity, then known simply as the Energy Foundation, before they split off in 2019. Despite the apparent separation, they maintained shared office space in San Francisco until 2022 and continued sharing personnel through at least 2024, with six EFC employees being compensated by EF as late as July 2024.”

In reality, the Energy Foundation China wants to promote renewables in the U.S., because it would force us to rely on the clean energy technologies which they dominate and America cannot produce. Specifically, solar panels, windmills, and the rare earth metals used in battery production. It’s obvious that China is trying to make our grid reliant on their supply of clean energy technology. Of course, this dependency would create a multitude of national security risks for the U.S. 

It’s worth sharing a comment by the member of Congress who led the letter to the Trump administration, Representative Brett Guthrie, a Republican from Kentucky. He stated: “The fact that Chinese Communist Party-backed entities and other foreign adversaries may be attempting to influence decisions related to American data center infrastructure puts into perspective how serious of a fight we are in…Americans deserve to know who is bankrolling the disinformation campaign that seeks to block critical infrastructure investments.”

Is Earthjustice’s report really about raising legitimate concerns about Amazon’s AI investment in Mississippi or is the report trying to help Beijing defeat America’s AI capabilities? Because Earthjustice takes Chinese dollars, the answer seems obvious. 

As someone who has investigated and written on China’s actions to threaten our national security before, I never cease to be amazed by just how far-reaching and sophisticated China’s efforts can be. The next time you hear about how Amazon’s AI data centers in Mississippi might raise your power bills, remember that the source for this disinformation may just well be China – a nation led by a despotic leader desperate to curtail human freedoms across the globe.