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A new report warned that a San Francisco-based organization with significant ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is promoting climate policies that benefit the Chinese regime while undermining American energy independence.
The
report, published by State Armor, an organization that advocates for policies on China-related security threats, examines Energy Foundation China (EFC), a registered U.S. nonprofit led by Zou Ji, a former Chinese official who worked on climate change strategy.
“Over the past decade, the foundation has leveraged significant financial resources to fund research, advocacy, and policy development aimed at accelerating the transition to ‘green’ energy sources in the U.S,” the report states. “This transition has made America dependent upon China.”
“The Chinese Communist Party’s strategy to make the U.S. dependent upon China for energy resources constitutes an industrial and national security threat,” the report states.
It says that EFC’s “close ties to Chinese government agencies” and its leadership’s connections to the CCP “should raise serious concerns among U.S. policymakers about foreign influence on American energy and environmental policy.”
CCP Ties
One of EFC’s two offices is in Beijing, in the same building as the CITIC Group, a state-owned Chinese investment firm.
Zou, EFC’s president and CEO, was once a deputy director general of the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation within China’s National Development and Reform Commission, which is the Chinese regime’s top economic planner, according to the organization’s
website.
Zou was also a member of China’s climate negotiation team for the 2015 Paris climate talks, according to the website. Zou also
held a position at the state-affiliated Tsinghua University in China. His colleagues
include a former Chinese political delegate, who was also a retired major general.
Liu Xin, EFC’s environmental program director, spent 15 years working at the municipal environmental protection bureau in Beijing, according to EFC’s
website.
One of EFC’s board members is Zhang Hongjun, an attorney based in Washington. Zhang’s firm’s website said he had worked as a legislative director for China’s National People’s Congress, the highest administrative body in the Chinese regime. It
noted that Zhang had worked for “many years in the Chinese government” on legal and policy issues, and that he was the only lawyer invited by President Bill Clinton to participate in an environmental roundtable during Clinton’s visit to China in 1998.
EFC has formed partnerships with government entities,
such as the provincial environmental department in eastern China’s Jiangsu Province
and the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, a high-level international advisory body for the Chinese regime.
Supporting Climate Policies
The report said the CCP has been “co-opting the progressive American climate change lobby” to push for green technologies, focusing currently on the
electricity grid and fertilizer market.
Sinochem Group, a Chinese state-owned conglomerate known for making chemicals and fertilizers, was
named by the Pentagon in 2020 as one of a number of “Communist Chinese military companies” operating directly or indirectly in the United States.
“The rapid growth of green energy initiatives in the U.S. has undermined American energy dominance, created significant economic and geopolitical advantage for China, and opened large vectors into American industry for broader CCP influence campaigns,” the report states.
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EFC spends millions each year to organizations that promote green energy alternatives.
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In
2023, EFC gave $350,000 in grants to the Rocky Mountain Institute and $200,000 to the Natural Resources Defense Council, both environmental advocacy groups.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) came under scrutiny in 2018, when two House lawmakers
sent a letter to the New York-based environmental group seeking documents on its relationships with China and its compliance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
The organization told The Epoch Times: “NRDC is an independent, non-profit, public-interest group working to protect the environment and public health. When developing our institutional positions—in the United States, China, India, or anywhere else in the world—we rely on our U.S.-based senior leadership and board of independent trustees, and no one else. We do the bidding of no government, in this country or any other.”
The Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Institute has advocated a ban on gas alliances and
published a study linking gas stove usage and asthma in 2022. It has an office in Beijing and has published
reports that said China has “ambitious clean energy goals”
and “has led the world in investments in various climate technologies.”
The State Armor report calls EFC a “conduit for coordination on climate policies” between China and the United States. It noted that EFC
provided support for an event featuring California Gov. Gavin Newsom during his trip to China in 2023, and then
hosted a discussion forum a month later promoting “low-carbon cooperation” between China and the United States.
Michael Lucci, founder and CEO of State Armor,
wrote a letter to five congressional committee leaders on June 11, asking them to use the report “as a roadmap” to investigate EFC.
“Congress must act,” Lucci wrote. “The EFC is not a passive observer; it is an active player in a geopolitical contest where America’s energy security and global leadership hang in the balance.”
‘Weaponizing Climate Activism’
Josh Hodges, commissioner of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, said the report showed “classic CCP behavior ” across the board.
“It’s well known across the U.S. government that the CCP is actively working on utilizing private companies, shell companies to further its objectives, whether that’s on the energy front, whether that’s on material dominance, whether it’s on their information campaign,” he told The Epoch Times. “They are very effective at using seemingly legitimate business ties to further their foothold, and they do this both at the state level and the federal level.”
Jason Isaac, founder and CEO of the American Energy Institute, said the report illustrates how the CCP has taken advantage of nonprofits in the United States.
“I think you’re seeing more documentation of coordinated efforts from the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate nonprofit policy institutions, research institutions, educational outcomes, and really fund a marketing campaign in this country that is not based in reality, facts, or math,” Isaac told The Epoch Times. “They’re weaponizing climate activism, and it’s really undermining U.S. energy security.”
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Workers carry solar panels to be installed in the desert at the Ningguoyun Lingwu 1 million kilowatt photovoltaic project in Lingwu, in China’s northern Ningxia region on April 14, 2025. AFP via Getty Images
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While natural gas
remained the top U.S. energy source in 2024, contributing 38 percent, “renewable” energy production was setting records. According to data from the Energy Information Administration, solar output increased by 25 percent and wind generation climbed by 8 percent compared to a year earlier.
“China wants to have dominance in this market,” said Hodges. “They want to be the only ones who can supply that needed infrastructure.”
And the more that they have access and dominance, the less likely that other U.S. businesses will be able to thrive, he added.
Hodges argues that the United States has “an ample role” to play to provide energy security to international partners so that “they’re not relying on hostile nations.” He noted that U.S. companies have just
finalized a deal with Japanese power generation giant JERA to supply up to 5.5 million tons of American liquefied natural gas each year to Japan.
“China clearly doesn’t want that. They want us focused on green energy and things that are going to be highly, highly cost ineffective, and that puts China in the driver’s seat.”
“They really want to be in the driver’s seat on this, and they know that the United States has a lot to offer in this space if we prioritize the resources that are at our disposal.”
The Epoch Times reached out EFC and the Rocky Mountain Institute for comment.
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Udumbara
