Dakota Beacon

Our First Amendment was written to make absolutely certain that we would have freedom of conscience. This means we get to meet with others, attend rallies, make speeches, listen to speeches, write what we like and publish it, read what we like, argue, discuss, report the facts on news and world, national and local events. We have the freedom under this Amendment to worship as we please or not – as we please. We have a right to petition for redress of our grievances. All of this implies our freedom of conscience.

Most of us agree on one thing – slavery is a bad thing and we should not support it. We have felt safe in America in saying this and, in fact, until very recently, if we disagreed with this idea we could express that freely as well, even if no one agreed with it.

This is not true in many places in the world today. In Iran or Saudi Arabia or many other Muslim nations any religion other than Islam is banned and persecuted. In China or North Korea no religion is allowed but worship of the current leaders. China particularly punishes religious worship. Its Uighurs – Muslims within China, its house Christians (Christians who celebrate their religion within their own homes) and Falun Gong practitioners (those who follow a philosophical way of life incorporating physical fitness and a set of moral values) are among the most persecuted people of China. Bhuddists and political dissidents also fall into this category.

These people are punished in many horrific ways. The Uighurs and others are frequently sent to “re-education” camps – forced labor. In many cases their children are taken from them and they are sent away. They and others, chiefly Falun Gong, are put to use as organ donors. This is a particularly grisly business wholly outside of the bounds of a civilized nation. We have to call this and so many other practices in China to be unacceptable to us.

But we still find a lot of Hollywood and sports celebrities who will not condemn this. We have companies which sell their goods here which openly use slave labor – and defend their use of slaves. Nike comes to mind, and Starbuck's. We have some young American athletes who have been criticized for having represented China in their sports at the Olympics – Eileen Gu, for one – a privileged American girl who found it very, very profitable to defect for purposes of her performance and rewards, although she says she intends to return to Berkley to school. Many of us find these entitled athletes and celebrities to be contemptible for their willingness to completely overlook the misery and destroyed lives of others – the heartache of having one's freedom stolen, the torture of one's children being seized, the ultimate terror of death on an operating table, “donating” an organ to a wealthy consumer from the West. It is hard to believe that these people can sleep at night.  And those who protest are beaten, killed or become slaves themselves.

Like a Mafia don, they seem to be able to shrug and say, “It's just business.” The rest of us cringe. Now we are looking at becoming a part of this process of accepting forced labor and totalitarianism. The city of Grand Forks is seriously planning to become a part of this machine of misery through its partnership with a Chinese Belt and Road project. When you make a deal with these people and throw in with them you must check your conscience at the door. You must be ready, willing and able to countenance things that yesterday you would have demonstrated against. I ask again, which of us is fine with forced labor – with slavery? None, you say? Oh, but when you go into business with those who are using these methods you lose your right to criticize them – you lose your right to have a conscience. You are required to forfeit your soul.

Earlier we discussed briefly the dilemma that the nation of Greece was faced with when the European Union wished to censure China for its treatment of religious minorities such as the Uighurs, for its use of slave labor. Greece had made one of these deals with China. They couldn't pay back money China put into it and so they became partially owned - in one key port by 51%. Greece no longer was allowed to do this, to have an opinion. Greece was stripped of its right to a conscience. Greece was forced – by China – to veto the resolution censuring forced labor camps and use of slave organ donors. Now Greece needs to be okay with this. Now Greece is not allowed to have a soul.

This is like so many debt-trap schemes, the more familiar one being the Mafioso who sends someone to break your legs if you can't pay up. You pay. Somehow. And to do so you must often give up your soul. It becomes a luxury you simply can't afford.

Is Grand Forks that desperate? Are things that bad here? Has our city government brought the town so low that we have no recourse now but to allow China to move in? Is it mere greed? What would entice free people – people not yet at starvation's door – to do such a thing?

Many on the city council pride themselves on their “woke-ness”. Just prior to the discussion and vote on the Fufeng project, the council entertained discussion of a “hate crimes” ordinance. They no doubt felt good about a proposal so focused on alleviating wrongs in society that they perceive to be rampant in the city, that they are okay with abandoning the idea of equal protection of the law. Some people, they reason, are “more equal than others”. Many argued against as well as for this idea. Some felt really good and self-righteous about supporting it. But how will this comport with the introduction of a Chinese-controlled hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars' project which will be controlled by the puppet strings held by Xi Jinping?

There are many, many very sound reasons to reject this proposal out of hand. We can look at the aspect of national security with respect to our Air Force Base and its possible decline as a result. We could look at the unfairness to local businesses, or at the risk of a crippling tax burden. We could look at the windfall profits for some sellers, or ask the question, “why China and not Japan or Poland, for example?” Or the bigger question, “why do we need to indulge in crony capitalism and fascism in the first place?” We don't need government involvement in every business venture. The city council seems to think we do, except for those already in business and struggling to support the tax-fed ones.

But the question is also there: What if the city wants to condemn slavery someday? Will they be able to do that? What if they find that they have been contributing to the practice of slavery? Has anyone asked Fufeng's representative to denounce the practice of forced labor? Or taking children away from parents? Or forced organ doning? Maybe they should ask him to publicly censure China's government for these practices. Would he? If he would not, they can be assured that if they go into business with Fufeng they will not be able to either. Some of these people were out marching for George Floyd a couple of years ago. Regardless of the merits of that case, they felt they had that right. They do have that right under our laws. But what if they decide to go into business by investing our tax dollars in a venture with a Chinese-controlled company, part of Xi's Belt and Road Initiative? Those who are so invested will have exchanged their right to protest what they think is wrong for some dollars – maybe lots of dollars. We won't even be privy to the amounts that will be changing hands over time.

We have seen enough with the scandal of Burisma in Ukraine. We have seen what the Chinese themselves do to their own people – we have seen Tienanmen Square (by the way, the Chinese do not see the film of this – it's banned there) and we have seen how they crushed Hong Kong. We know what they are doing to religious groups and political (and now even medical) dissidents. Do the people sitting on the Grand Forks city council, or their city attorney or Mr. Todd Feland, or any of the engineers or paper-shufflers at the City have any idea what they are getting into?

Some what-ifs:

1. What if China attacks nations in the South China Sea – where it is doing naval exercises at the moment? Attacks Taiwan (its warplanes are in their territory)? And Grand Forks has invested $100 million in a Chinese-run facility?

2. What if this brings the US into a military conflict with China?

3. What if the presence of this “wet corn mill” compromises our military base?

4. What if Grand Forks were ultimately to lose both the Air Base and the corn mill?

5. What if the US government shut down the operation?

6. What if someday someone on the council says something negative about the practice of slavery? If we must countenance slavery in order to “do business” then we had better stop condemning the old Confederate States and toppling statues of Gen. Beauregard or Jackson or Lee because nothing they ever stood for is as bad as what the Chinese are doing.

Are you members of the Grand Forks city council ready to take a vote on whether you will be allowed a conscience or a soul now? Think long and hard about this.

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