Mother Jones; Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP; Getty
In 2014, while Scott was governor of Florida, his administration tried to recruit Chinese businesses to establish operations in the Sunshine State. Enterprise Florida—a partnership between the state government and local businesses—opened offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong to attract Chinese investment in Florida, and Scott dispatched the state secretary of commerce, Gary Swope, who was CEO of Enterprise Florida, to China for this occasion. A report issued by Enterprise Florida in 2020 (a year after Scott left the governor’s mansion for the Senate) noted that the outfit had positioned “Florida as an ideal business destination for Chinese companies.”
One particular venture stood out. In 2018, Scott’s administration boasted that through EF it had helped expand the operations in Florida of a Chinese solar firm called JinkoSolar. When JinkoSolar that year announced it would build a new state-of-the-art solar panel manufacturing facility in Jacksonville, Scott took credit for this and declared, “Florida’s economy is on a roll.” City and state tax incentives for the JinkoSolar plant totaled $4.2 million.
A few months later, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported the deal with this Chinese firm “could pad Scott’s vast, personal bottom line.” The paper noted that he was an investor in a subsidiary of NextEra Energy, the parent of utility giant Florida Power & Light. And NextEra had said it planned to purchase 7 million solar panels from JinkoSolar over the following four years…Scott and his wife, according to his disclosure forms, have invested millions of dollars in other financial corporations with major interests in China. In 2022, they had between $1.8 million and $3.75 million invested in funds managed by OVO Fund, a venture capital firm. One of its portfolio companies is Avaamo, an AI firm that has drawn backing from a Chinese VC firm called WI Harper. And that VC company has been funded by another Chinese VC firm, Westlake Ventures, which has been tied to the Chinese government. OVO Fund has also held investments in other firms engaged in business in China…
Source: Sen. Rick Scott Says He’s a China Hawk. But He’s Made Lots of Money With China-Related Investments – Mother Jones
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