Agitators united by Chinese money, hate for America target data centers, experts warn

Protesters react as the Box Elder County Commission approves a large AI data center project in Tremonton, Utah, on May 4, 2026.Activists opposed the proposed 40,000-acre development over concerns about water use, energy demand and environmental impact.(Natalie Behring/Getty Images)

‘Red-green-green alliance’

Riboua, who specializes inanti-West ideological movementsand China’s influence in the Middle East, warned that the overlap between climate activists, anti-Israel protesters, communists and Islamists is being driven by a broader anti-American worldview she described as “Third Worldism,” an ideology that divides the world into “oppressors” and “oppressed” and casts the United States and the West as the primary source of global problems.

The ideology unites otherwise unrelated activist causes under a shared anti-Western framework, she said.

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“Third Worldism drives anti-Americanism because the goal of Third Worldism is basically dismantling a cohesive Western society or Western country,” Riboua said.

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Energy expert Brenda Shaffer, a research faculty member at the U.S.Naval Postgraduate School, described the broader activist convergence as part of a “red-green-green alliance,” an ideological overlap between three elements: communist movements, characterized by the color red;Islamist activism, described as green;and environmental protest groups, symbolized as green.

They increasingly unite around anti-West and anti-American causes, she said.

Riboua said the alliance has become increasingly visible as activist groups move rapidly from one issue to another — from climate protests to anti-Israel demonstrations and now toward campaigns targeting AI infrastructure and data centers.

The overlap has also become increasingly visible on the streets.At a 2024 “Climate Justice Means Free Palestine” rally in New York City, climate activists and pro-Palestinian demonstrators protested side-by-side.

“There’s always this quest to find what is the next thing to revolutionize,” she said.

People participate in a “Climate Justice Means Free Palestine” rally outside Citibank headquarters in New York City on June 18, 2024.(Michael M.Santiago/Getty Images)

Riboua pointed to Thunberg’s evolution into a vocal anti-Israel activist as an example of the growing ideological overlap between climate activism and broader anti-West protest movements.

“Greta is not an Islamist, and I think that she never read Karl Marx, but she has all the good instincts of a revolutionary against the evil oppressor, Westerner and the United States,” Riboua said.

China, energy and the AI race

Shaffer warned the growing convergence is increasingly affecting industries critical to America’s economic and technological competition with China.

“Energy is crucial to the AI race, to the data centers,�

Shaffer argued that while activist groups in the West targetfossil fuels, AI infrastructure and industrial development, China continues rapidly expanding coal production, manufacturing capacity and energy generation.

“So we’re truly by adopting international climate policies, we’re weakening the West,” Shaffer said.

“China really benefits from these policies that we adopt and we just let them keep forging ahead with coal.”

Shaffer compared the trend to Soviet-backed anti-nuclear activism during theCold War, arguing that adversarial powers have historically benefited from anti-energy movements in the West.

Racks of servers with colorful wires are seen in a data center.(Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP via Getty Images)

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“You saw traditionally the Soviet Union funding movements against nuclear energy inEuropeso that Europe would remain dependent on Soviet and later Russian gas,” Shaffer said.

She also warned that increasing Western dependence onChinese renewable-energy supply chainscould create new strategic vulnerabilities because China dominates major parts of the global solar and inverter market.

Shaffer argued many activist campaigns focus on delaying or blockingenergy and infrastructure projectsin the United States while China rapidly expands coal consumption and industrial production.

Riboua added that many ordinary protesters are not necessarily driven by ideology, but by simplified narratives amplified through social media clickbait and activist messaging.

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“Some people are generally good people and they want to have a moral position,” she said.“They know headlines… there’s a lot of ignorance.”

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Shaffer warned that artificial intelligence infrastructure requires enormous amounts of reliable electricity and said the West risks falling behind China if energy costs continue rising and infrastructure projects continue facing activist opposition.

“You can’t have an arms industry built on solar energy,” she said.

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