A look at urban environmental hero, Taylor Frazier McCollum, billionaire Marxist Neville Roy Singham, and how 40 American data center projects were rejected by voters.
Posted by Leslie Eastman
Back in June, I reported on lawmakers’ warnings that China may be fueling opposition to American data centers, which is a serious concern worth keeping in mind as the backlash spreads.
Now NPR offers a sympathetic profile of Taylor Frazier McCollum, whose organizing helped put a $5 billion Maryland data center project on hold, even as the surrounding county struggles with a budget deficit and the region is struggling economically.
Frazier McCollum is one of a number of Americans whose political awakening was triggered by data center development. Across the country, community members have taken to local council hearings to voice their opposition. They’ve prompted — though estimates vary — about 500 moratoriums on data centers nationwide.
Unlike a lot of land-use activists trying to protect their homes from threats in their backyards, Frazier McCollum does not own a home. In 2024, she and her young daughter were evicted from their apartment. She was working at a waxing center that cut wages, and she could no longer cover her rent.
“It was difficult,” Frazier McCollum recalled. “Because I created the ideal life paying for us to live in this apartment and have our own space … and then to have it taken away … It felt like something that wasn’t ever going to end.”
How did this plucky lady become an urban environmental hero? I’m glad you asked.
She was supported by the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), which has links to Neville Roy Singham. Singam has personally bankrolled anti-American, pro-CCP nonprofits with a staggering amount of money.
This fall, House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith and House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar announced they asked Treasury and the IRS to investigate whether nonprofits allegedly linked to the Chinese Communist Party violated their tax-exempt status by financing disinformation campaigns against U.S. data-center construction.
The chairmen allege that Singham’s funding network supports these efforts, citing a report connecting associated activists to 21 campaigns across 14 states and nearly $24 billion in affected infrastructure investment.
“This is not an organic grassroots movement. It’s a machine with Shanghai Singham at the helm. This operation is a key piece of Beijing’s playbook to undermine America’s artificial intelligence leadership by taking advantage of the U.S. tax code. This network of tax-exempt front groups is masking foreign money behind shell companies and anonymous donor-advised funds to manipulate public discourse surrounding the technological infrastructure necessary to win the AI race.
Tax-exempt status is a privilege, not a right, and it must never be used as cover for a foreign influence campaign by our adversaries.”
The release aligns with my assessments that China is gutting our artificial intelligence infrastructure using our own environmental law. Reports say 21 PSL campaigns in 14 states blocked $23.6B in AI investment.
Returning to our spunky, environmentally-worried, single mother….McCollum was helped by the indirectly Singham-supported PSL in two critical ways:
1) Social-media amplification. The local PSL chapter asked to feature her in an Instagram reel about the proposed data center. In an interview with Slate, McCollum said: “They had a much bigger following, so I knew it would help get more signatures.” She said the video went viral, spread to TikTok, and helped the petition reach more than 20,000 signatures.
2) Organizing and turnout. McCollum collaborated with Michael Lavina, a local PSL volunteer, in mobilizing residents for county meetings. Governing Independently reports that McCollum and PSL helped pack a county data-center task-force meeting before County Executive Aisha Braveboy paused permits.
The importance of Singham’s funding to social media organizing cannot be overstated.
Mr. Singham’s groups have produced YouTube videos that, together, racked up millions of views. They also seek to influence real-world politics by meeting with congressional aides, training politicians in Africa, running candidates in South African elections and organizing protests like the one in London that erupted into violence.
The result is a seemingly organic bloom of far-left groups that echo Chinese government talking points, echo one another, and are echoed in turn by the Chinese state media.
And so, via the PSL network, McCollum became the recipient of the Prince George Sierra Club’s 2026 Environmental Service Award!
This concludes the saga of how a vacant mall’s proposed second life as a $5 billion data center becomes a cautionary tale about the China-linked influence network congressional investigators allege is working to hobble American AI infrastructure.
The data center could have converted useless property back into productive use with potential investment, tax revenue, and economic benefits. However, now the area retains an empty parking lot while activists collect accolades.
Marxist financier Singham’s alleged connections to the organizations supporting opposition to data deserve scrutiny, as they now impact both national security and economic stability.
As I reported in “Voters Pull the Plug on Big Tech’s AI Data Center Boom,” voters across the country embraced restrictions on these projects, raising the troubling possibility that this Maryland saga is one chapter in a much larger story.
Beijing does not need to win every technological contest outright if Americans can be persuaded to shelve their own opportunities.
