WSJ reported:
Orbiting 22,000 miles above Earth, a fleet of American-built satellites is serving the Chinese government in ways that challenge the U.S.TechCrunch added:
The Chinese government has been using a private company jointly owned by a U.S. investment firm and its Chinese counterpart to expand its surveillance and telecommunications capabilities using American technology,
At the center of the Journal’s reporting is a company called Asia Satellite Telecommunications (AsiaSat). It’s a satellite operating company acquired back in 2015 by U.S. private equity firm The Carlyle Group and Chinese private equity firm CITIC Group. Both Carlyle and CITIC are known for their ties to government in their respective home nations.
Carlyle pretended to be hand's off regarding uses of AsiaSat's satellites.
In statements to The Wall Street Journal, Carlyle said that AsiaSat’s equipment supports internet and phone communications for Chinese telecommunications carriers.Carlyle has long read U.S government tea leaves and profited handsomely. The politically connected private equity underwriter (PEU) went global some time ago. It promotes Carlyle as creating opportunities in virtually every market around the world.
“It is effectively a pipe,” Carlyle said in a statement to the Journal, “and AsiaSat, because of privacy issues, doesn’t monitor or regulate the content that flows through it.”
Before Carlyle laid any pipe it was well aware of the market for what could flow through it.
Carlyle has two managing directors on AsiaSat's board of directors.
I'm sure they are well aware of the market opportunities available to AsiaSat from a repressive Chinese government. Carlyle demands it as well as grand returns. The greed and leverage boys will obfuscate when their mendacity is revealed. It's like blowing smoke from a pipe....
