SALLY MORRIS: PLAYING FOR VERY HIGH STAKES - AN OPEN LETTER
Recently it was brought to my attention that the city of Grand Forks is seriously pursuing a deal with China's Fufeng Group to build a massive installation here to mill wet corn. The project's stated agricultural process is better understood by experts in that area and not really germane to the real issues which are raised here.
This project is under consideration in the midst of heating up of stressed relations with China. Right now China's closest ally, Russia, has invaded Ukraine and the US has taken a position of support for Ukraine in this one. China betrayed President* Biden by conveying to Putin information he (Biden) confided in the Chinese. It is expected by those who watch these geo-political-military operations and movements that China will take an opportunity very soon to invade, conquer and extinguish Taiwan's government. This would be a big deal. Presumably, the US would take a very dim view of this – or at least we should. Taiwan is a staunch and, by the way, very, very successful ally to the West.
All of this is pertinent because of the context of the overtures of the Fufeng Group. There is no such thing as a company in China that is not controlled by the CCP. If there be any doubt on this point, we need to remember that the Fufeng Group project is part of China's strategic Belt and Road Initiative. For any who are unfamiliar with this program of Chinese expansion of influence, I would suggest following the work of Epoch Times' Joshua Philipp in this area. The BRI was initially known as “One Belt One Road”. The name should give us a glimpse of what they are really after.
There are myriad reasons to oppose the Grand Forks city council's pursuit of this project. It will entail expenditure (supposedly covered in “due time” by the company) of some $97 million dollars – and these things never come in under but often over estimated costs. The experiences of other countries, states and cities that have joined these schemes should stand as a cautionary tale for Grand Forks. There is a huge magnetic pull between Grand Forks' city council and mayor and bureaucrats to any foreign project. One cannot help but wonder why the city does not want American companies or even companies based in allied nations, rather than an adversary.
We can thank China and its American collaborator for the devastating coronavirus. We know that wherever Chinese travelers went they created hotspots of the most lethal version of the virus. These travelers were vectors of disease, albeit innocent themselves. There are dark rumors – and we should believe them – that a new virus is in the offing, worse than Covid. Do we want to become the first hotspot for the next pandemic? Everyone on the council is still wearing masks, two years after the first round. Should we be concerned? Should we be concerned about the proximity of this development to our Air Base – a military intelligence installation?
There is a growing mountain of evidence that dealing with Belt and Road projects is a very perilous path. Can Grand Forks learn from others? Or will it be necessary for the council to forge ahead, firm in their belief in windfall profits, like the gambler who goes to the loan shark in order to win the sure bet. We should all be very concerned with this. Of course it has the “pragmatic” imprimatur of Governor Burgum. We should look into this as well. Where was his due diligence? Where is Mayor Bochenski's? The city council's?
And with all due respect to the City Attorney in Grand Forks, does his experience really equip him to match wits with the government of communist China? Really? There is a lot of overconfidence, it might seem, here. Chutzpah, maybe presumption. The most able statesmen of places such as Greece have found themselves swamped. But maybe we shall see. What we should find troubling is that none of these city “fathers” takes any personal responsibility – they will not be held liable for the mess they might make. It will land, as usual, on the backs of hard-working, non-favored local businesses and property owners, the taxpayers.
It might be a really good idea for our federal government to protect our cities and our people from these usurious and unethical projects by simply outlawing the contracting of local or state governments with foreign countries, especially those with whom we have serious differences and with whom we have adversarial relationships – like China, North Korea, and perhaps Russia.
On Tuesday, February 22, the Grand Forks city council took a vote on whether to support moving forward with this unfortunate project. The vote was 5-1 “for” the project. I have written an open letter to the member who held out for more information before lending support to this. She is to be congratulated on her sense and judgment. We don't have enough information to go forward with this, but there is sufficient information to delay indefinitely such a project. My letter follows. Please take a look at the many links. It is a real education – we can learn a lot from the people who have been researching this and observing it for several years now.
Here is the video of the February 22, 2022, meeting. This issue begins at about "30" on the time line.
Your comments are sought on this. I would share them with the council. They must at least know that if they go ahead with this ill-advised project that there is thoughtful opposition to it.
-------------------------------
February 26, 2022
Dear Ms Dachtler:
First of all, I would like to thank you for taking an independent view and voting “no” on the Belt and Road Initiative project – the corn milling installation – at the city council meeting last Tuesday. I realize that this is or can be, at least, difficult when so much effort is being made to push this project at any and all costs. I have not, however, heard your reasons for your hesitancy about this project. I would very much like to know what your thoughts on this are.
For me, just the words “Belt and Road” are chilling in view of how this venture has been used so far by the Chinese government. We heard a lot of reassurances from the Fufeng representative of how they are just a big business like other big businesses, that they “know nothing” about any human rights abuses and don't, themselves, use slave labor. While this sounds nice, we must stop and think: on the face of this project it is classified as a “Belt and Road Initiative” project. “Belt and Road” (formerly known as “One Belt One Road”, presumably changed because it was too honest a description, the “One” being China), is itself a tool of the Chinese government. Here I will just borrow the wording from Wikipedia, not a source considered “right-wing” in any way:
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, or B&R[1]), formerly known as One Belt One Road (Chinese: 一带一路) or OBOR for short, is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in nearly 70 countries and international organizations.[2][3] It is considered a centerpiece of the Chinese leader Xi Jinping's foreign policy.[4] The BRI forms a central component of Xi's "Major Country Diplomacy" (Chinese: 大国外交) strategy, which calls for China to assume a greater leadership role for global affairs in accordance with its rising power and status.[5]
This is a Chinese government project. It is not only blessed by that government, it was created by that government. In most cases these projects are designed to control trade and trade routes. In the case of the Grand Forks development we may speculate on their reasoning. Why, when labor is actually free in China, does that nation endeavor to establish manufacturing elsewhere? Why, when a corn milling plant could be located in China does a Chinese government-controlled firm decide they want a plant in remote Grand Forks, North Dakota?
North Dakota and Grand Forks like to think of themselves as highly moral, even self-righteous entities. The issue brought to the council just prior to the corn mill speaks to that self-righteousness. The city sees itself, officially, at least, as “woke”. It wants to be seen and characterized as an organization that stands up for minorities and women. Often this goes way overboard, as with “hate crime” or “hate speech” ordinances or legislation, where the spirit as well as the letter of the Constitution is trampled in the haste to make this mark. The European Union shares this desire and has no Constitution to impede its decisions. So why, when it was so moved, did it not speak out to condemn human rights violations common in China? The EU was so moved to condemn but then suddenly backed off. Why?
It seems that member nation Greece had mad a deal with a loan shark called the CCP. One of its key ports is owned 51% by China. Unless Greece wanted some very severe economic suffering, it had better stop this censure. Greece did. Greece vetoed the move to criticize China and that sentiment died right then and there. Greece has eternally prided itself on its ancient history – of democracy, of advanced civil rights and philosophy. Not so much since China took over. I am linking an article here for your perusal. It bears serious consideration. There are dozens of such articles but this one sums much of it up very well. They are all horror stories of regret for having made a “deal with the devil”.
Perhaps the council is not aware of one of the practices which has come to light recently – although it has been going on for some time. This sounds “sensational” but it is not. The Epoch Times has reported on it through investigative reporter Joshua Philipp. This organization is meticulous in its research and does not make wild guesses or irresponsible charges. They are sober and circumspect and they are above all, very knowledgeable in the area of China's policies, international and domestic. We have all heard much lately about the disgraceful human trafficking. This includes adult forced labor and forced organ doning, but now we are learning that the prime organ “donors” are trafficked children. The process involved is unthinkably gruesome and inhumane. And it is extremely profitable for the Chinese interests. This is the problem when a society begins to travel down the road of pragmatic gathering of wealth, putting morals and conscience away in a drawer, with the idea that we can take them out when we can “afford to” and just let them lie fallow until then. If we decide that these issues are not important enough today, tomorrow will be too late. For a city which takes such pride in its attention to minorities, this is, to say the least, a bizarre about-face . . . for perceived economic gain.
Serbia has apparently decided to take the direction of “pragmatism” instead of conscience. Greece did. Some of these nations and peoples could be excused partially because they might not have been aware of what they were getting into in dealing with an aggressor like China. Now they know. Or maybe their leaders didn't care, opting for easy money instead. We can't know what was in their hearts. But now we have the question right here at home. What will it be? Will Grand Forks decide on a path to what they believe will be wealth beyond their wildest dreams? Will the Grand Forks city attorney be up to the task of not being outwitted or out-maneuvered by Chinese experts in manipulation of whole nations? And should we be asking questions such as “why a corn mill in an area not known for growing corn”? Corn probably grows just about everywhere in small amounts, but eastern North Dakota is not a corn-producer. We should look beyond the stated reasons for this location. After all, Illinois or Iowa would seem better, or even Nebraska, in terms of plant location. Why here? It seems that Grand Forks chased Fufeng until Fufeng caught us.
The GFAFB is an intelligence installation for the US military. Presumably information is filtered through there from all corners of the world. This is used by our military in defense of our nation. It protects our troops. Why would China not want a base nearby? Technology is now such that it would not seem at all a stretch for someone there to be garnering information from the Air Base and possibly even distorting it, preventing its transmission to intended recipients or just scrambling it. This is not at all beyond the reach of modern technology at the disposal of China. What are the implications of this – for our country and military and for Grand Forks?
As this is written, China's ally, Russia, has invaded neighboring Ukraine. Our country has, right or wrong, condemned Russia and for all we know could be pulled into armed conflict with Russia. China is assisting Putin in betraying confidences relayed unwisely by Biden, conveying them to Putin. It is expected by those who have been watching events of late, that China will take an opportunity very soon to invade Taiwan and attempt to defeat and annex it. What position will the US take on this? What effect could such an event have on a project half-way completed which is more likely to cost Grand Forks $100 million than $97 million to build? We could be “all-in” on this and have the floor fall out from under it overnight. We would have no control. We could be in a very dangerous situation as well as simply a financial disaster. The hazards in such a project are only partially known at this point.
Why Chinese companies? Why not Japanese companies? Japan is an ally. Japan is not committing atrocities against its people. Why not Poland or France or some other country? Why not the Netherlands or Belgium? Why not, for that matter, an American company? Is there some reason why the city council wants to deal with an adversary like China? Why punish other countries' companies or our own, just in order to take the candy from China? These are good questions. No one seems to be asking them on the council. Many are disappointed that Bochenski is not asking them in view of his platform. But at least you might ask them, as one not yet convinced that this is right or good.
We could easily see the current administration overlooking this kind of operation, but it is highly likely that a couple of events might well intervene. One such event would be that the GFAFB becomes known as a dysfunctional base for its purpose and could only be further used as a disinformation site. It could have limited use in that regard but not for long because China would learn that it had been found out and the base “re-purposed” for disinformation. It would then lose its usefulness and be abandoned. The other is that an incoming administration, likely to be “conservative” or populist, might very well see the Air Base as a lost asset, not worth using for anything once its intelligence mission was corrupted. In this case such an administration could easily move to decommission the base and move its mission to a more secure location. Maybe a base which needs a new mission. It would at least be interesting at that point to find out whether Fufeng wished to continue its long-distance corn milling operation absent the Air Base.
The many citizens who came forward to express their concerns with this project touched upon many issues of great importance to them – the simple unfairness to local businesses and property owners (the ones who are not getting a huge price per acre, but will instead be required to accept the possibility of crippling taxes in the future). A lot is being asked of the people of Grand Forks when the council says “trust us”. We have reason to be skeptical of this. Some are angry, and rightly so, that their businesses are “expendable” to the council – that they must make it or not on their own without help or tax breaks, while a foreign company comes here and has huge investments made – by the taxpayer – on spec. Some have human rights concerns and very serious ones. Forced labor and stolen intellectual property are the backbone of China's economy, this and coercion of their debtors to bend to their will and now, as we know, involuntary organ donating.
Does Grand Forks really want to become China's debtor? We don't have to at this point. The more that is invested in the preliminaries here the more “committed” the city feels – this is the intention, of course. People like Todd Feland see only one narrow aspect of such a project – the entire meeting until the people from the audience stepped forward, was concerned with ponds and indoor lagoons and lines on maps. Not one word was spent on the moral aspects of this or the implications of dealing with China.
You would council a brother or sister or a child not to go to a loan shark, not to partake in usurious arrangements for a short-term perceived gain. I'm sure even Dana Sande would caution his near and dear not to go near a Mafia loan shark. It's bad business. This is the same thing. “Okay, Greece. You'd better stop this or we'll break your legs for you . . . “ This is, in fact, how an evil entity steals souls. I am not an overly religious person. I don't want to attempt to find any of this in the Bible myself, but we all know right from wrong. Or we should. It works like this: offer something someone wants, make it look so good it's hard to believe but make it seem real. Get the victim sold on it and show him how he can have it easily with your help. Make sure that he is fully committed to something he would never get involved with any other way, something that is by its nature wrong. Make sure – in this case – that human rights violations and crimes against humanity are papered over as the representative of Fufeng did. Once enough money has been gambled on the deal the only way out is to stay in. From then on one's soul is not his own. One's conscience is no longer heard. The person – or the nation or state – is lost to itself and belongs to the evil entity. Greece, Serbia, countless African nations, Latin American nations have gone this way.
The Chinese look for some entity – nation or city – that has a poor image of itself or is suffering poverty. It should not be taken as a compliment to be selected by Chinese companies for this – the companies are surrogates for their CCP government and do its bidding in all things. In the case of Grand Forks it might not have been poor enough or been well located enough to seem desirable, but the Air Base was the important feature. Should a future administration elect to close the base Grand Forks could be left with an "Old Maid". The Chinese might, in this case, have no further use for their Grand Forks corn mill. Especially if it wasn't the goal in the first place.
I repeat: I sincerely appreciate your at least wanting more information before voting for this and your willingness to not “go along” with the majority. I do not know your specific reasons for hesitating, but it is well to do so. I know I wouldn't want my name associated with this. I do not know whether Jeannie Mock has similar reservations or not – I guessed she did from Mr. Sande's move to exclude her from a vote he wanted to go his “yes” way.
I hope you will look into this. I will append a few more links to brief articles here for your consideration.
https://www.dailywire.com/episode/1-fauci
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6iKs58JAFc (China assisting Putin)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-22/what-was-in-victoria-belt-and-road-deal-with-china/100086224 (Australia's experience with BRI – and if the national government of Australia can act to simply cancel such a “done deal” between the state of Victoria and China, is it not likely that a future US government might just cancel this one?)
Sincerely,
Sally Morris
Comments: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (RE: Dakota Beacon)
DakotaBeacon