The Fufeng Gambit -- What China Sees In Grand Forks, ND -- November 17, 2021

Why is China so interested in a corn milling program in a remote town in a remote state known for wheat and oil? But not corn. 

UND EERC: link here. A world-class energy research center. Where oil and technology came together to become part of the US shale revolution, perhaps one of the most amazing energy revolutions ever. China: looking for shale technology.

UND Aerospace: link here. Where Saudi princes come to learn to fly. The second-largest degree-granting college at UND, the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences operates one of the largest fleets of civilian aircraft in North America. 

Drone research:  US DOT selects North Dakota DOT for unmanned aircraft BEYOND integration pilot program. Link here.  That link is just the beginning. Click on "drones" in search at the milliondollarwayblog. You can start here if you want. If one is seriously interested in drones, one thinks Grand Forks, ND.

Bottom line: UND / Grand Forks is home to a huge drone program, a huge aeronautics program, and a huge connection to the US space program as well as the entire history of the US shale revolution, open to the public. 

Okay.

Now for the good stuff.

Grand Forks AFB: it used to be home for the B-52 Stratofortress bomber, part of the nation's nuclear triad. 

Now, GFAFB is even more important for the nation as it affects / regards China: GFAFB is home of the 319th Reconnaissance Wing which maintains, operates, and flies the nation's Global Hawk High-Altitude ISR mission (see below), more important to real-time events than even the nation's satellite reconnaissance program. 

RQ-4 Global Hawk: fact sheet. 

PAVE PAWS: does anyone remember this? Star Wars? Ronald Reagan? Reagan made the SDI announcement in 1983. Pave Paws developed in 1980. See wiki, does this get your attention?

PAVE PAWS (Precision Acquisition Vehicle Entry[a] Phased Array Warning System) is a complex Cold War early warning radar and computer system developed in 1980 to "detect and characterize a sea-launched ballistic missile attack against the United States". 

With the first solid-state phased array deployed, the system at the perimeter of the contiguous United States used a pair of Raytheon AN/FPS-115 radar sets at each site[3] (two sites in 1980, then two more used 1987–95) as part of the United States Space Surveillance Network. 

One system was sold to Taiwan and is still in service. -- yes, in the lede paragraph of the wiki entry.

The exact location: Cavalier Air Force Station about one hour north of Grand Forks AFB / Grand Forks driving time. 

So, an operating system to ""detect and characterize a sea-launched ballistic missile attack against the United States" and still in service was sold to Taiwan. 

Okay, ask me again, why is China so interested in a corn milling program in a remote town in a remote state known for wheat and oil?

A huge thank you to a reader who brought this to my attention. I would love to take credit for this but I have to give all the credit to my readers.

Original Post

Background: link here.  This is a huge economic story for North Dakota.

This is a corn milling story. Corn.

Quick: what state is know for corn? Sure, North Dakota has a lot of corn, but when you get right down to it, if one is interested in corn, one's first thought is Iowa and the states that border Iowa. Not North Dakota.

But if, for some reason, the state's incentives for bringing a Chinese company to North Dakota, why would China choose Grand Forks, not Fargo? For those on the east coast, Fargo is to NYC as Grand Forks is to Rahway, NJ. 

Fargo:

• closer to the rest of the world; Grand Forks is almost as remote as Williston, except on the other side of the sate
• has much better transportation; I-29 and I-94, two of the longest interstate systems in the US intersect at Fargo, not Grand Forks
• Fargo has a much larger population that could better support a huge new manufacturing complex coming into North Dakota
• has everything that Grand Forks could offer .... or does it....

The deal was likely done by the most internationally savvy group of businessmen and politicians the United States has, including the North Dakota Tax Commissioner (more on him later, perhaps).

So, anyway, that as a bit of background, what does the Grand Forks area have that would interest China over all those other areas in corn country, USA?