Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, joined Greta Van Susteren on Newsmax to discuss the Fufeng Group’s purchase of farmland in Grand Forks and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Excerpts and full video are below.
On the Influence of the Chinese Communist Party:
“I’ve long been in the camp that thinks we should have a strategic decoupling from China so we’re not so reliant on an adversary.”
“The CCP has a very controlled economy on purpose. The Emperor for life, Xi Jinping, has a heavy hand and is a heavy handed leader. The intertwining between the CCP and its economy is such that they really are one and the same. But I think you have to even look a little deeper. The CEO of Fufeng is in fact a very active member of the CCP and he’s received high recognition for being a model [laborer]. It’s not just one sort of fringe element. This really is very intertwined.”
“If you look at the record of the Chinese Communist Party [and] their recent purchases over the course of the last decade, we [have an] overreliance on the Chinese Communist Party for things like pharmaceutical supply chain, food supply chain… [and] critical minerals… [China] steal[s] everything they can get their hands on. They steal our technology in lots of forms. In fact, they provide a lot of the technology to us that they then use to steal from us. As we have learned from 5G—Huawei [is] the most obvious example. [Why would we] give them access to critical supply chains like agriculture, and that’s before we even begin [to talk] about the sensitivities to Grand Forks Air Force Base?”
On the National Security Implications of Fufeng in Grand Forks:
“Both Senator Hoeven, my North Dakota colleague who’s importantly a defense appropriator, and myself—on the Senate Armed Services Committee—we both believe strongly that Grand Forks should reject this opportunity and look somewhere else. We’re more than happy to help them find a better tenant for that land than Fufeng and the [Chinese Communist Party].”
“Senator [Tom] Cotton asked Air Force Chief of Staff the Air Force General Brown on the record if he had any concerns with Fufeng. His only response was ‘I’d rather discuss that with you in a in a classified setting.’ That answer alone is a concern. We’ve heard from people within the industry as well as from within the Air Force and other agencies that they are concerned about the proximity of this facility [to Grand Forks Air Force Base]. But remember, this is a local decision along with the state. I would like to help them find a better partner than the Chinese Communist Party.”