Is China behind US opposition to data centers? Examining a Trump, GOP claim

Examining claims of foreign interference

President Donald Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington last night ahead of talks and a state dinner tonight. We assume artificial intelligence is on the menu, which might get awkward; Trump earlier this month blamed China for fostering anti-AI sentiment in the U.S.

“You know, a lot of people say that it’s a China PR thing,” Trump told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Sept. 10 in response to a question about why people don’t want data centers in their backyards.

He is not alone in pinning local disapproval to external influence, mainly from China.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has blamed pushback on data center buildout on “foreign source dark money,” “foreign psy-ops campaigns” and “foreign-directed propaganda.” Congressional Republicans have also asked for information about how the administration will respond to foreign influence campaigns and “billionaire-backed activism” against U.S. AI development and infrastructure buildout.

Evaluating the evidence of Chinese influence

Is rising opposition to data center development really a product of Chinese interference?

PolitiFact reviewed key reports about Chinese influence campaigns that attempt to boost data center concerns in the U.S. We found that politicians exaggerate the effect that these campaigns had on a movement that has reached Americans of all political stripes across nearly every state.

“A political movement that stretches from Bernie Sanders to Steve Bannon isn’t the result of some mystical power China wields over the American people,” said Mitch Jones, managing director of policy and litigation for Food & Water Watch, an advocacy group that opposes data centers.

An April Power the Future, an energy advocacy group, report said the environmental group Sierra Club was under investigation for secretly receiving funding from China and Russia. It linked to a 2020 report about the Environmental Protection Agency asking the Justice Department to investigate whether U.S. environmental groups received covert funding from those nations. We did not find evidence that Sierra Club was formally investigated or charged.

Views from research and expert analysis

In May, the Bitcoin Policy Institute, a cryptocurrency advocacy group, released an investigation naming multiple ways in which it says China is influencing U.S. discourse about data centers. Influence actors are using English-language Chinese propaganda outlets, a network of nonprofits and media outlets and foreign billionaires to “shape U.S. policy and public opinion” on AI, it said.

The author of the report, Sam Lyman, acknowledged to The New York Timesthat “there is an organic opposition to data centers.” He said the activity his group documented was a parallel “inorganic element.”

Darren Linvill, Clemson University professor and co-director of its media forensics hub, said such reports distort facts to support a misleading narrative.

“China has an extensive state media apparatus that they use for a range of propaganda and influence operations, but we don’t see a particular focus on this issue from Chinese state media,” Linvill said. “Chinese state media mostly wants to talk about how great Chinese AI technology is, which is typical of their purpose.”

Jessica Brandt, Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow for technology and national security, said foreign actors exploit the data center debate; they don’t manufacture it.

“That’s what they do — work to amplify splits that already exist in our society. Evidence of an attempt is not evidence of success,” she said. “Their goal is to divide us, distract us, and prevent us from playing a forward-leaning role in the world that might constrain their interests.”

OpenAI, one of the top U.S. AI companies, and the X Safety Team have also pointed to Chinese influence in the AI debate, though its findings fell far short of what Trump and others described.