One of the national TV news networks recently did a series of reports regarding the thwarted plans by Chinese-based Fufeng Group to build a corn milling facility in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The proposed $700 million project drew national security concerns because it would be located just 12 miles from Grand Forks Air Force Base. This reminded me of another Chinese investment here in our local area. CRRC MA Corporation was established in 2014 to manufacture rail cars in Springfield. Because this would revitalize an industrial property that had formerly been the site of a long-abandoned Westinghouse plant, then-governor Deval Patrick and local politicians were thrilled to see a multi-million dollar investment that would create a couple hundred local jobs. Representing perhaps the ultimate irony, the Westinghouse Transportation Division built locomotives and rail cars here in the United States from 1894 through 1988. Springfield Mayor DomenicSarno seems to think that his two greatest accomplishments have been the construction of this 150,000-square-foot facility by the Chinese government and the construction of an underperforming MGM casino downtown.

CRRC is a state-owned enterprise that is headquartered in Beijing. The CRRC plant in Springfield is less than five miles from Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, once the headquarters of the Air Force’s Strategic Air Command, with a runway that made it an alternate landing site for NASA’s space shuttles. In October 2022, the U.S. Department of Defense added CRRC to its list of “Chinese military companies” operating in the U.S. American citizens are prohibited from owning shares in the company, under an executive order signed by then-president Donald Trump. The CRRC plant was only built after $900 million in contracts had been awarded to build rail cars for the MBTA in Boston, with an additional contract to build cars for the SEPTA in Philadelphia. The MBTA contract was awarded when CRRC underbid Hyundai Rotem by $154 million. A second plant was built in Los Angeles to build rail cars for that city. CRRC MA’s website references 2020 in the future tense, and the parent company’s Chinese website only generates a 502 bad gateway error, not exactly signs of an ongoing commitment. The MBTA contract was for the delivery of 404 new vehicles to replace cars on the aging transportation system. So far, only 90 cars have been delivered, and those cars have been pulled out of service due to a wide range of manufacturing defects. Although the Boston Globe and the Boston NPR affiliate have started reporting on this story, it seems that we all too often fail to concentrate on the stories with national interest that are located in our own backyards.

Peter Pelland

Haydenville 

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