Tencent – a tech firm flagged as a “tool” of the Chinese Communist Party – is attempting to buy a German game developer used by Western countries to conduct military simulations.

The tech company, which counts former Obama campaign directors as lobbyists and Biden White House members as investors, is reportedly offering over $350 million for the company Crytek.

First revealed by the German newspaper Bild, the potential acquisition has led to “fear that the Chinese want to use the “CryEngine” developed by Crytek to produce war simulation programs for the Chinese army.”

“With these, China could rehearse the war against Taiwan and the West more realistically than ever before,” the report adds.

Such concerns are not misplaced, as the U.S. State Department has highlighted the tech firm’s close ties to the Chinese government, labeling it a “tool of Communist Party influence and control.”

As the State Department notes:

Significantly, the modern “China Model” is built upon a foundation of technology-facilitated surveillance and social control.  These techniques for ruling China have been – and continue to be – in critical ways developed, built, and maintained on behalf of the Party-State by technology firms such as Huawei, Tencent, ZTE, Alibaba, and Baidu.  As these companies export their products and services to the rest of the world, the security and human rights problems associated with this “China Model” are progressively exported with them. 

“China could spy on how Germany, the US, and other countries simulate military conflicts Because both the US Army and the German Armed Forces use the CryEngine for their military simulations and training programs for their soldiers,” Bild adds.