GOP Lawmakers Sound Alarm Over Chinese Purchase of US Farmland Near Air Force Base

Fifty-one House Republicans have written three of the Biden administration’s top cabinet officials in alarm over efforts by a Chinese entity to acquire farmland near a North Dakota air force base.

The transaction in question concerns Fufeng Group, the large producer of food additives in China with links to the Chinese Communist Party. Fufeng recently purchased 370 acres of land in Grand Forks, North Dakota, that is plans to build into a corn mill. The future plant will sit roughly 12 miles away from the Grand Forks Air Force Base, home to sensitive drone, satellite, and surveillance technology.

Such an acquisition is an “alarming development for our national security,” the lawmakers, led by Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), wrote in the Sept. 26 letter, according to a copy obtained by The Epoch Times. The recipients of the letters were Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen, and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

With the air force base’s “exceptional intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities,” they said, the land Fufeng purchased would become “the ideal location to closely monitor and intercept military activity.”

“This CCP-tied entity will have potential advantageous opportunities to perpetrate espionage, including actions and activities carried out under commercial cover or auspices,” they wrote.

Rep. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.) speaks at a press conference on vaccine mandates for businesses with House Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Nov. 18, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Rep. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.), who signed the letter, said he was troubled that the sale could have happened in the first place.

“It’s absurd that a Chinese Communist Party-affiliated company would be allowed to purchase farmland near a sensitive military base,” he told The Epoch Times in an email.

Besides potential national security risks, the lawmakers also saw the sale as problematic from a