Fufeng USA, a subsidiary of Chinese-owned Fufeng Group Ltd, recently announced plans to construct a corn milling plant on 370 acres of land near Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, sparking concerns about national security and the environment; a report from AG Week said.
Fufeng has a history of violating environmental regulations, committing approximately 30 violations over the last ten years.
Fufeng's headquarters are in China, and its chairman has ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP); a recent release from the Grand Forks Herald said. A May 26 report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission highlighted security concerns about the Fufeng plant, noting that it would be only 12 miles away from Grand Forks Air Force Base. In a separate memo, Air Force Maj. Jeremy Fox expressed concerns over national security, writing that "some of the most sensitive elements of Grand Forks exist with the digital uplinks and downlinks inherent with unmanned air systems and their interaction with space based assets."
"The Senate Intelligence Committee has been loudly sounding the alarm about the counterintelligence threat posed by the PRC," U.S. Sen Mark Warner (D-VA), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said when asked to comment on the issue. "We should be seriously concerned about Chinese investment in locations close to sensitive sites, such as military bases around the U.S."
Similar concerns prompted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to sign the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act last year, aimed at preventing companies owned by hostile nations from accessing Texas infrastructure; a 2021 Forbes report said. He signed the act in response to a Chinese billionaire who spent approximately $110 million buying up land in south Texas near Laughlin Air Force Base. Real estate tycoon Sun Guangxin, who has ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), purchased 140,000 acres of ranch land through subsidiaries in Val Verde County, some of which he set aside for a wind farm that would access Texas' electricity grid. Some Americans expressed concern that a Chinese-owned wind farm could interfere with or shut down the electric grid, or that it might be used to gather intelligence on the nearby Air Force base.
At the beginning of 2020, Chinese investors and Chinese-owned companies owned just under 200,000 acres of U.S. farmland, worth approximately $1.9 billion; Politico reported. The CCP has a goal of controlling its food supply chain, which has led to Chinese purchases of companies such as pork processor Smithfield Foods.
