Vowing to “never give up”, residents in Grand Forks, North Dakota, opposed to a proposed Chinese agribusiness plant plan to appeal to the state’s supreme court.
People for the Vote, a local group, posted over the weekend on its Facebook page, The Concerned Citizens of Fufeng Project in Grand Forks, that it had filed a notice of appeal to the court, seeking the reversal of an August ruling by a state district judge that denied their demand for a citywide referendum on the project.
“The citizens merely seek a public vote on the controversial Fufeng project, rather than allowing the powerful few to push through the largest project in the city’s history,” the post said, adding that the residents were hopeful that their “rights as citizens of Grand Forks, North Dakota, and the United States of America can be vindicated”.
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'Red scare' or security threat? North Dakota city torn over proposed Chinese milling plant
'Red scare' or security threat? North Dakota city torn over proposed Chinese milling plant
Todd Feland, the city administrator, told the Grand Forks Herald that the city council considered the district judge’s decision “thorough and objective and well thought out” and that the council would “work equally as hard to demonstrate that to the North Dakota Supreme Court”.
In February, the council approved what it described as a US$700 million “development agreement” with Fufeng USA – an American subsidiary of the Fufeng Group, a bio-fermentation giant based in Qingdao, Shandong province – to build a 370-acre (150-hectare) wet corn mill plant.
Proponents said the plant, which would be the company’s first manufacturing unit in the US, would generate jobs, increase tax revenues and upgrade infrastructure for the city of around 58,000 residents.
But because of the proposed plant’s proximity to a US Air Force base, some residents raised concerns over the project’s China connection, fearing that it would “bring Communist China to Grand Forks” and foster espionage and a nest of spies in their community.
North Dakota court rejects bid to put Chinese project to a vote in Grand Forks
The plant would be 19km (12 miles) from the Grand Forks Air Force Base, which houses top intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. The base is also home to a global communications system.
By May, protesters collected more than 5,300 signatures seeking a citywide vote on the issue. City officials rejected their plea, calling it an “administrative matter” and citing insufficient signatures and technical reasons. The state district judge sided with the city in August.
Eric Chutorash, the chief operating officer at Fufeng USA, said that the plant – which would process corn into starch, oil, and syrup – would be a model local citizen “purchasing US corn, manufacturing in the US, to sell in the US”.
“No one employed by Fufeng USA will be asked to collect intelligence on the air force base,” he added in an email to the South China Morning Post. “I can confidently say that no one working in the plant will conduct any type of espionage.”
Even so, the outcry reached Washington. Citing his alarm at the Fufeng dispute, Senator Mike Rounds, a Republican from neighbouring South Dakota, introduced a bill in August aiming to prohibit all investments in the US agriculture industry from entities with ties to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
And construction work on the project was halted in September after a federal inter-agency body charged with assessing national security risks involving foreign investments sought more details about the project.
Information provided by Fufeng USA to date was “insufficient”, according to a letter to the company from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
The additional submission and review process is expected to run up to 90 days.
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