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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, joined Fox & Friends to discuss his opposition to the Fufeng group’s purchase of farmland near Grand Forks Air Force Base. Senator Cramer highlighted national security concerns and his recent request for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to review the purchase. Excerpts and full video are below.
On National Security Concerns of Fufeng Farmland Purchase:
“It’s 370 acres near Grand Forks, North Dakota, which is in the heart of the Red River Valley. In other words, it’s very productive farmland. Also, importantly, it’s about 12 miles from Grand Forks Air Force Base, which is a very sophisticated Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) base. They fly Global Hawks. We just put in a new ground station for the first tranche of satellites by the Space Development Agency. So it’s a very important uplink downlink data center at the Grand Forks Air Force Base. Proximity both to the important farmland and to an important airbase make this particularly problematic.”
“I’m concerned about the proximity to the airbase. I’m more broadly concerned by the fact that China is able to come in and continually make investments and buy property, enter into our food supply chain right here in the United States. Remember, during the pandemic, it was discovered that China’s ownership of meat processing in the United States made our meat supply vulnerable. If we haven’t learned about the vulnerability of food supply, energy supply, other critical minerals, and pharmaceuticals from China, we aren’t learning very quickly. I’m very concerned about it. I’ve been opposed to this from the beginning. Quite honestly, I’ve been outspoken about it, but now we’re asking for a further review by CFIUS.”
On China as a Bad Global Actor:
“We’re a very open system, Brian, there’s no question about that. The Chinese have taken advantage of that openness in the United States. We willingly brought them in in many respects, as have a lot of other countries. A lot of other countries have learned their lesson, including countries much closer to China than we are. We are not desperate for this investment in North Dakota or anywhere in United States, but particularly North Dakota. We can do better than this. Thankfully, there are people like Beth and several other concerned citizens who did sound the alarm. I think when the investment opportunity first came it was not known the Chairman was an activist in the Chinese Communist Party. As soon as that became known, we should have gotten out of it. Now though, we are seeking further review from a national defense perspective. I’m confident that we’ll find lots of concern from the federal government.”
“I think a strategic decoupling from China is absolutely the right move for the United States of America. We ought to be very deliberate about it and we have to be very quick about it.”
