GOP embraces speculation about China’s role in data center backlash

GOP embraces speculation about China’s role in data center backlash

Republicans are embracing allegations that data center opposition in the U.S. is being fueled by foreign actors, raising questions over how influence operators are contributing to one of the fiercest debates in the tech policy space.  

© David Becker, AP Content Services for HPE

Reports, including from OpenAI, recently emerged suggesting China and other countries are carrying out influence campaigns to fan the flames of Americans’ frustration with the data center buildout.

Data centers, the server warehouses powering the AI boom, once enjoyed support from politicians on both sides of the aisle. But public opinion has rapidly deteriorated in the face of concerns about the infrastructure’s impact on electricity bills and the environment.  

Democrats have seized on this backlash, especially around energy costs, while Republicans have struggled to coalesce around a message addressing voters’ worries ahead of the midterms.  

“It makes sense for Republicans to point out China’s genuine efforts to influence American politics,” Ryan Fedasiuk, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told The Hill. “I’m glad we’re doing so. But on some level, it’s cope … it’s not going to make the problem go away.”

President Trump largely supports industry development, arguing tech companies need to be able to build without obstacles to effectively compete with China in the so-called AI race. He has sought to speed up the approval of data center projects, curtailing environmental reviews, and pushing for faster grid connections. 

As the president and his fellow Republicans try to balance a pro-tech agenda with constituents’ concerns, at least one key administration official and several GOP lawmakers are latching onto the reports of foreign influence campaigns.  

“Any place that’s trying to build data centers is getting bombarded with foreign-directed propaganda to try to block these from being built,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Fox Business Network late last month.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) along with Reps. John Joyce (R-Pa.) and Bob Latta (R-Ohio) sent a letter in early June to the FBI and the co-chairs of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, requesting information about evidence that........

© The Hill