(KXNET) — Last week, news of the “spying” balloons from China touched headlines nationwide. Our country’s relationship with China is tense, and North Dakota has been the center of that debate — especially when it comes to the Fufeng Project in Grand Forks and the state investments we make with China.

KX News’ Adrienne Oglesby spoke with Retirement and Investment Office’s Jan Murtha to see if there has been any word on the federal or our stateside to take away these investments.

The Grand Forks City Council canceled the Fufeng Project this week, but what about our state’s financial investments with China?

When we last heard from Murtha, she stated taking away our investments from China would impact us in a big way — and that we would ultimately need to amend the current law to specifically say that there should be no divestment in a foreign power. But, similar to when Russia and Ukraine first went to war, Murtha says there is another option.

“We would wait for guidance from the federal government,” explained Murtha. “To my knowledge, there have not been any additional sanctions or restrictions. We would see if there is something similar to what happened when Russia invaded Ukraine. Then, the US government came out and provided guidance to US investors, saying ‘this is what you must do now because of this invasion.’ We would expect that type of guidance from the federal government if there was a move toward any type of additional regulatory requirements or sentience as it relates to China. Other than that, any discussion at the state level I believe has only been within the hearing that you’ve already covered.” 

We currently invest at least one percent of our state’s Legacy Fund in China. At this point in time, there have been no commands to ND from the federal government regarding Chinese financial investment.