The Pentagon Says Tech Giant Tencent Is a Chinese Military Company. Its Founder Helps Yale ‘Form New Partnerships’ in China.

Ma Huateng has served on the Yale Center Beijing advisory board since 2015

By Chuck Ross

The founder of Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent—which the Pentagon blacklisted this week over its links to the Chinese military—serves on a prestigious Yale University advisory board and has quietly donated millions of dollars to other Ivy League schools.

Ma Huateng, the second-richest person in China, has served since 2015 on the Yale Center Beijing advisory board, which the Connecticut-based university uses to “form new partnerships with organizations in China.” Ma and Tencent have donated millions of dollars to Yale, MIT, Cornell, Columbia, and Princeton, the Washington Free Beacon has reported.

Those relationships could face new scrutiny after the Pentagon designated Tencent one of several “Chinese military companies” operating in the United States. Tencent, which owns the popular social media app WeChat, has faced scrutiny for years for helping the Chinese Communist Party censor China’s internet and for its central involvement in China’s ambitious plan to dominate the AI industry by 2030.