Company With Ties to China Continuing With Corn Mill Project Near Airbase in North Dakota

A China-based agribusiness with links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is moving ahead with plans to build a corn mill in Grand Forks, North Dakota, despite local concerns the project could pose national security risks.

Fufeng Group Limited—the second largest xanthan gum producer in China—recently purchased 370 acres north of Grand Forks after the city council voted to annex the property.

A Hong-Kong listed company, Fufeng Group is based in Shandong Province and has subsidiaries in 115 countries around the world.

The future corn mill plant would operate through U.S. subsidiary Fufeng USA on prime land about a dozen miles from Grand Forks Air Force base. Minot Air Force Base sits about 211 miles west of the city.

U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said the project raises many red flags in terms of national security.

Cramer specifically wants to know why the group selected to build close to a strategic military base in a remote northeast corner of North Dakota that houses sensitive drone, satellite, and surveillance technology.

Located 75 miles south of Canada, Grand Forks is “a wonderful spot in the Red River Valley,” Cramer told The Epoch Times.

“But it’s in the northern reaches of corn country. That in and of itself is a peculiarity. It doesn’t seem like a rational investment for this type of facility.”

“In other words, [logistically] you would have a corn milling plant in the middle of the corn belt. If this project were 150 miles south of Grand Forks, it would be surrounded by corn fields.”

US Prohibition List

Fufeng Group and Fufeng USA argue they are not on the White House national security prohibition list.

“The National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) does not consider agribusiness or wet corn milling an economic and national security concern,” according to a group fact sheet.

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