Andrew Allis, Granville

Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar (and nothing else) Sigmund Freud famously once said. The question before North Dakotans in the Grand Forks area, and now the entire nation, is if a corn mill will be just a corn mill and nothing else.

A local city council decision to approve a Chinese company’s (The Fufeng Group) proposed $700 million corn milling facility on over 300 acres of ND prime farmland some 12 miles away from Grand Forks Air Force Base, home to some of the most sophisticated and sensitive drone technology in existence, positioning the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) to engage in espionage against the United States military, has erupted into a national debate.

Although North Dakota is one of six states having laws banning foreign ownership of farmland, these restrictions on Chinese land ownership can be technically evaded by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) buying U.S. corporations that own agricultural land through one of their proxy companies .

The fact that this is indeed a major national security risk is reflected in the bipartisan opposition to the purchase in the US Senate from both the Democrat Chairman Mark Warner (VA) and the Republican ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. With the present sharp divide between the two parties, it’s rare there is agreement on anything, so the fact there is bipartisan agreement in co-sponsoring legislation that could to block such a venture speaks volumes as to the national security risk of this purchase by the Chinese firm, the Fufeng Group.

Since some who want the plant, and the economic benefits associated with it, assure us the Chinese Government’s motives are benign, perhaps a quick and very cursory review of their track record would be in order. China is controlled by the CCP. The Party came to power via the greatest mass murderer, barring none (Stalin and Hitler included), of the 20th century, Mao Zedong, who killed some 65 to 80 million of his own people, many of them (approximately 40 million), by intentional systematic starvation. They have stolen our intellectual property for years and this is the communist controlled Party that, rather than warn other nations of the leak of the Covid virus as a result of gain-of-function research conducted at their Wuhan Lab, tried to cover it up, unleashing it on an unsuspecting world. China is currently the leading executioner of its own citizens in the world for supposed crimes against the Party and vicious in its religious persecution, holding both Christians and Muslims in prisons and concentration camps.

Now anticipating the forthcoming inevitable rebuttal, accompanied with the tired hackneyed accusation of (what else?) you’re a racist(!) (always shouted and exclaimed with moral superiority), I’m talking about the vicious inhumane communist GOVERNMENT of China, not the people themselves. They have clearly shown they cannot be trusted in any venue. Also, consider this question, would they allow us to operate an agricultural business some 15 miles from one of their strategic and sensitive military installations? Why then, would/should we?

Grand Fork’s first term mayor Brandon Bochenski (R) and its City Council are sacrificing this country’s military security for the short-sighted immediate benefit of jobs and tax revenue, all the while touting the virtues of globalism, stating: “Are we going to be the first one to basically say no to globalism?” How about saying no to foreign espionage Mayor, and protecting your country from America’s unquestionably foremost foreign adversary?