American Stewards | Local Citizens and a City Council Defeat China

China’s impact on America’s sovereignty runs deep and is at a dangerous crossroad.

From our President down to the local government level, China has infiltrated and influenced lawmakers, universities, corporations and much of our society as a whole.

A prime example of how China is operating within our nation’s borders became very apparent when a 300-acre farm outside Grand Forks, North Dakota was purchased for $2.6 million by the Fufeng Group in 2020.  Fufeng’s CEO is Li Xuechun, who was a leader in the People’s Congress in China, which means he is a member of the CCP.

After buying the farmland, Fuefeng declared they were investing $700 million to construct a corn milling plant and bring over 200 hundred jobs and other opportunities for logistics, trucking, and support services to the local community.

However, the milling plant would be located in an area where corn isn’t one of the main crops grown in the region and local citizens began asking questions of the city council.  However, they were shut out of the process by Grand Fork’s Mayor Brandon Bochenski and the City Administrator.

Finally, in 2022, the story began to unravel.  It became obvious that the Fufeng Group might want the land for a different purpose other than a corn milling facility.  The citizens organized and attempted to force a city-wide vote, but their petition was denied by the city attorney.  Discouraged, but not defeated, the citizens continued to raise issues and attend City Council meetings for over a year.

Then, in April of 2022, an Air Force officer named Maj. Jeremy Fox, circulated a memo about the Fufeng project describing it as a national security threat to the United States alleging it fits a pattern of Chinese espionage that uses economic development projects to get close to Department of Defense installations.

As it turns out, the 300-acre farm is 12 miles from Grand Forks Air Force Base, home to the 319th Air Base Wing that remotely flies RQ-4 Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicles worldwide.  Fox argued the farm was strategically located where passive receiving equipment could intercept sensitive drone communications to and from the base creating a national security risk.

Because of Maj. Fox’s report and the endless efforts of the local citizens, the Mayor declared his intention to stop the project stating “the only remedies the city has is to refuse to connect industrial infrastructure and deny building permits.”  And, with that, on February 6, 2023, the Grand Forks City Council voted unanimously to block Fufeng’s proposed corn mill project.

The power of the individual citizen and the ability of local governments to prevent foes like China from destroying our nation from within cannot be understated nor ignored.