The tract of land just north of Grand Forks, North Dakota, seems like an unlikely location for international espionage.
On the outskirts of the city of Grand Forks lies a 300-acre patch of prime Dakota farmland that is bordered by highways and light industrial facilities.
A crop production company, a truck and trailer service outfit, and a landscaping supply company are nearby.
When the three North Dakotans who owned the parcels of land sold them for millions of dollars this spring, it raised alarm bells.
The land was purchased by a Chinese company that is just 20 minutes away from Grand Forks Air Force Base, home to some of the nation's most sensitive military drones.
A senator from North Dakota said that the base houses a new space networking center that handles the "backbone of all U.S. military communications across the globe."
Security experts say the Chinese corn milling plant should be stopped because it could give Chinese intelligence unprecedented access.
The property and economic rights of a community are at stake in a fight against national security warnings from high-ranking officials in the nation's capital.
Local politicians are at odds with one another, and neighborhood groups are preparing to block the project, because of the debate over the project.
The owner of a trucking company that borders the Chinese land is suspicious of the new company's intentions. He said it made him feel nervous for his grandsons. I feel nervous for my children.
Gary Bridgeford, who sold his piece of farmland to the Chinese company for around $2.6 million this year, said his neighbors have protested against the project in his front yard. He stated that he had been threatened. Every name in the book has been used to sell property.
He thinks the national security concerns are overblown. He wanted to know how they would gain knowledge of the base. It is about twelve miles away. Its next door isn't like that.
There is concern because people hear the China stuff. Everyone has a phone in their pocket. Where do you place the line?
The proposed $700 million plant would create more than 200 direct jobs, as well as other opportunities for logistics, trucking and other support services, according to the mayor.
He said that the town is about 60,000 people. We don't have enough money to have an intelligence gathering apparatus. We try to do the best we can.
The United States Air Force has not taken an official stance on the Chinese project.
An officer in the Air Force sent out a memo in April accusing the project of being a national security threat to the United States and linking it to a pattern of Chinese sub-national espionage. The Fufeng project is located on a narrow geographic footprint at which passive receiving equipment could intercept sensitive drones and space-based communications.
He wrote that some of the most sensitive elements of Grand Forks have digital uplinks and downlinks. Any such data collection would cause grave damage to the United States.
According to Maj. Fox, the Air Force wouldn't have the ability to detect the use of drones and satellites in China. He wrote thatPassive collection of those signals would be invisible as the requirements to do so would only require ordinary antennas. This introduces a grave vulnerability to our Department of Defense installations.
That isn't the Air Force's official stance. The Air Force spokeswoman said that Maj. Fox wrote the memo to raise awareness of the company in question moving into the Grand Forks area.
The company at the center of the debate believes that its project will benefit Americans. There were concerns that the plant could be used to spy on the Air Force base.
"I can't imagine anyone that we hire that would do that." He said it wouldn't be used for espionage. I am an American citizen, I grew up here, and I know my team feels the same way, so I am not going to do any espionage activities or be associated with a company that does.
Fox is not the only one worried about the farmland.
The location of the land close to the base was cited in a May 26 report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., is opposed to the project because of the economic advantages it might bring to his own constituency. He thinks the Chinese government is trying to do something. He said in an interview that we underestimate how effective they are at collecting information and using it in bad ways. I would not allow the Chinese Communist Party to do business in my yard.
The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the ranking member of the committee told CNBC they are against the project.
The counterintelligence threat posed by the People's Republic of China has been sounded out by the Senate Intelligence Committee. There are military bases around the U.S. that are close to Chinese investment.
The Republican senator from Florida agreed. He is co-sponsoring legislation that would give the Biden administration the power to block such a purchase. This is something that needs to be addressed.
The city of Grand Forks is not expected to start building infrastructure for the project until next spring because of the complexity of the project. Mayor Bochenski is moving ahead in good faith, but is ready to change course if there is new information. It's a difficult balance right now, we want to do what's best for the community, but we also want to do what's best for the country
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