A new report from State Armor, a global security threat watchdog, exposes an American-funded Chinese energy organization that is part of the Chinese Communist Party’s effort to fill China’s coffers by making us dependent on unreliable and inefficient Chinese-made “green” tech.
Energy Foundation China employs former government officials from both the United States and China, funds both American and Chinese government projects and agencies, has ties to numerous CCP agencies, and provides money to leftist American universities and climate groups. Yet its “stated goal is to assist China in ‘coping with development, energy, environment, and climate challenges” as it influences the economy and government policy both in Communist China and America.
“The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) plan to defeat America includes maneuvering the United States into dependence on China for energy and other critical supplies while preventing the U.S. military from intercepting China’s energy sources,” the State Armor report began. The CCP influences and bribes climate activist Americans to push the U.S. to become dependent on toxic “green” technologies produced by abusive and/or slave labor. This is a national security crisis, State Armor warned. Notably, we not only get our solar panels and batteries from the CCP, but China refines 90% of the world’s rare earth minerals so necessary for all our electronics.
Energy Foundation China is “nominally U.S.-based,” according to State Armor, and it receives a significant amount of funding from non-profits both in America and internationally. “Energy Foundation China is illustrative of a broader class of American entities that follow CCP guidance, compromising the integrity of the American political system and undermining U.S. national security,” the report warned.
While the Energy Foundation China is registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit headquartered in San Francisco, CA, it is led by Ji Zou, a former official of an influential Chinese government agency, and most of its employees are in Beijing. Energy Foundation China used to be known as the Energy Foundation before it spun off most of its U.S.-based operations in 2019 into a separate organization called the U.S. Energy Foundation. While still formally organized as the Energy Foundation, since 2019, the organization has used the alias “Energy Foundation China” or “EF China”… The group was founded by Hal Harvey, a climate activist and entrepreneur with deep ties to numerous left-wing organizations and to China. In 2023, Energy Foundation China reported a total of over $84 million in revenue. Known funders of Energy Foundation China include the MacArthur Foundation, Sequoia Foundation, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, ClimateWorks Foundation, and Hewlett Foundation.
Zou Ji has been part of multiple CCP government entities in the past and was a member of China’s delegation in 2015 to the Paris Climate Talks. He holds a position at CCP-run Tsinghua University. Energy Foundation China’s environmental program director, Xin Liu, was also previously a CCP official, and board member Hongjun Zhang was part of a Chinese environmental council and formerly legislative director for the China National People’s Congress, the most powerful state entity in China. Zhang worked for no fewer than five different CCP ministries as well, per State Armor, and helped write China’s Marxist Five-Year Plans.
Interestingly, even Energy Foundation China VP David V. Wagner, who previously worked for the U.S. State Department, holds a Tsinghua University degree and was also once employed by China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection.
Energy Foundation China’s operations in the Communist country are under the oversight of the CCP’s National Development and Reform Commission, which ensures compliance with CCP regulations and censors “privately” funded media, according to State Armor. The foundation’s headquarters are housed in a state-owned building, and the foundation “regularly” gives grants to CCP-controlled agencies. It also partners with CCP government entities. Yet here in America, Energy Foundation China is allowed to fund research at American universities, including Harvard and UC-Berkeley. The organ has funded U.S. government projects as well, including at the Department of Energy, and members of the Foundation’s board of directors are former state and federal officials.
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Energy Foundation China founder Harvey argued back when Donald Trump was first elected to the presidency in 2016 that America wouldn’t dare to reject cheap Chinese panels. China’s climate envoy said something similar in 2024, predicting no move away from Biden administration pro-China climate policies. Of course, the Trump administration has already made significant efforts to move away from “green” energy and to oil and gas, but Trump also just touted a new deal for importing Chinese rare earths, so perhaps the CCP propagandists were somewhat right — even Trump isn’t ready to break with China altogether to focus on mining and refining our own rare earths. State Armor referred to China’s assumption that “the CCP’s penetration of the U.S. political and industrial systems runs so deep that CCP officials believe that not even a skeptical White House could halt America’s growing dependence upon Chinese technologies.”
State Armor further noted, “Energy Foundation China influences climate policy within the United States and has extensive ties to advocacy organizations.” It lavished millions of dollars on climate advocates who push “green” technology over oil and gas. It also heads lawsuits against companies and funded support of Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which enriched China through its “green” goals. It appears this foundation is a major national security threat, one which merits investigation by the Trump administration.
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