The US Air Force intervened in the dispute over whether or not to construct a maize mill in North Dakota and said that the plan “presents a major danger to national security.”
Assistant Air Force Secretary Andrew Hunter said in a letter that there were “near- and long-term concerns of major disruptions to our activities in the vicinity” due to the planned maize mill.
The letter’s topic is Fufeng USA’s proposal to construct a sizable milling plant next to Grand Forks, North Dakota, roughly 12 miles from the Air Force Base.
Some locals opposed forging greater economic links with China at the commencement of discussion around the plant, while others said it might be utilized easily as an espionage facility for the adversarial Chinese government.
Brandon Bochenski, the mayor of the 60,000-person city, who had previously backed the project, said on Tuesday that he would try to halt work by trying to refuse a number of building licenses.
Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven, the two Republican senators from North Dakota, made a statement in support of Hunter’s letter and denounced the project.
The planned project “presents a substantial danger to national security with both near- and long-term risks of severe consequences to our activities in the region,” the Air Force said, leaving little room for misunderstanding, according to the senators.
We think the city should stop working on the Fufeng project, and instead, we should collaborate to locate an American firm to carry out the agricultural project, as we have suggested.
Bochenski, however, alters his position in response to the Air Force’s letter and said earlier this week that he will assist in opposing the project. But regardless matter what he does, the property will remain belong to Fufeng USA, a Chinese company’s American affiliate.
Building and construction on the land development project had been put on hold recently while the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States examined the company’s intentions, which were managed by a Chinese national.
CFIUS ultimately came to the conclusion that it lacked jurisdiction over the area, further perplexing the regional authorities overseeing the project.
The federal government’s reaction throughout this process, according to Bochenski, “can only be seen as delayed and contradictory.”
He said that “Chinese students and professors at the University of North Dakota” as well as a Chinese-owned aviation firm in Grand Forks now may be the topic of investigation. “This order leaves open the issue of additional companies having Chinese links throughout the country,” he said.
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