Fufeng should never have been allowed to buy land so close to a critical U.S. military facility. The company’s purchase highlights the failure of the U.S. foreign policy community, the Defense Department, and the Biden administration to protect America from an obvious threat posed by a regime that has repeatedly declared the U.S. to be its enemy.
Fufeng plans to build a $700 million processing plant on 300 acres it purchased this year in North Dakota for $2.6 million. The man who sold the land does not see why there is such a fuss. “How would they gain any knowledge of the base?” asked Gary Bridgeford. “It’s about 12 miles away. It isn’t like it’s next door.”
But the Chinese plant does not have to abut the Grand Forks base to be a national security threat. An Air Force major circulated a memo in April pointing out that the proposed plant, in the words of CNBC, “is located on a narrow geographic footprint at which passive receiving equipment could intercept sensitive drone and space-based communications to and from the base.”
Fufeng dismisses the concerns. “We’re under U.S. law, I’m an American citizen, I grew up my whole life here, and I am not going to be doing any type of espionage activities or be associated with a company that does, and I know my team feels the exact same way,” said Eric Chutorash, the chief operating officer of Fufeng USA, Fufeng’s U.S. subsidiary.
Chutorash’s assurances are worthless. Articles 7 and 14 of China’s National Intelligence Law of 2017 require every Chinese national or entity to commit acts of espionage if the regime demands. Moreover, in the Communist Party’s top-down governance system, no entity can resist an order from the ruling organization.
Fufeng, in short, is under compulsion to spy. And if it builds its North Dakota processing plant, it will have the opportunity to grab sensitive military communications.
“The China of today has turned out to be a very nefarious China,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told Sandra Smith and John Roberts of Fox News on Friday. “I think rather than inviting them into our backyard, we ought to have more of a strategic decoupling of our relationship with China.”
When it comes to agriculture and ranching, how far should that decoupling go?
How about forcing Fufeng to sell all its acreage? As an initial matter, the company will almost certainly be able to install passive listening devices on the land, even if the processing facility is not ultimately built.
Moreover, there is now a pattern of Chinese purchases of large tracts of land near American military installations. The Pentagon needs to protect its facilities, and the best way to do that is to unwind Chinese purchases.
Should there also be a general ban on ownership of American farm and ranch land by Chinese nationals and entities?
Yes. First, there is a matter of reciprocity. Americans are not permitted to buy land in China, so why should the United States extend that right to parties from China?
Second, there are disturbing reports regarding how owners from China are using newly acquired land. Some, for instance, are illegally growing marijuana. The Communist Party promotes drug use in America, apparently as a means to weaken the U.S.
There are broader issues, however. In Oklahoma, for instance, there is a disturbing pattern of new Chinese owners allowing land to lay fallow. “If the People’s Republic of China allowed U.S. agricultural lands it acquired to cease production, the country’s capability as a producer of food surpluses would be lost,” Gregory Copley, the president of the International Strategic Studies Association, told Newsweek. “No power can remain great if it cannot produce food surpluses, and this has always been the biggest strategic asset of the U.S., and the key to wealth.”
Taking land out of production, therefore, is not benign. Food security is national security.
As Copley, also the editor-in-chief of Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy, said to this publication, “Ultimately, the loss of control of food production is a key strategic failing.”
The loss of control can have consequences. China’s WH Group managed Smithfield Foods, which it bought in 2013, to benefit Chinese consumers over American ones. “When the pandemic hit,” the Center for Strategic and International Studies reports, “Smithfield increased pork exports to China even as the United States experienced widespread meat shortages due to supply chain disruptions, and Smithfield closed some of its plants due to poor working conditions.” Smithfield, at the time of acquisition, owned 146,000 acres in Missouri.
China’s regime is seeking control of American assets, and its intentions look malign. It’s high time, therefore, to remove Chinese parties from critical sectors of the American economy.
Let’s start with agriculture and ranching. A nation, after all, cannot protect its food supply if it is owned by its enemies.
Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China. Follow him on Twitter: @GordonGChang.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
