(Tribune News Service) — The president of a technology firm working to build its $95 million U.S. headquarters in Johnson County, Kan., on Monday called claims it poses a national security risk “completely incorrect.”

Allegations from Republican politicians in recent months that the company could steal military secrets hold “no semblance of reality,” the company official told Kansas lawmakers.

Cnano Technology, a U.S. subsidiary of a Chinese firm, received economic incentives from Johnson County to build its facility last June. In the time since, they’ve faced intense backlash from some conservatives and, more recently, from U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner and state officials.

They argue the company has ties to the Chinese Communist Party and that its new headquarters poses a national security risk because of its location 21 miles from the Kansas City National Security Campus, 35 miles from Fort Leavenworth and 70 miles from Whiteman Airforce Base in Missouri.

For the first time on Monday the company directly addressed these concerns while objecting to a bill in the Kansas House that would force it to divest from their property in Kansas.

“Contrary to what’s being portrayed, Cnano poses absolutely no threat,” said Shawn Montgomery, president of Cnano Technology USA. “The notion that CNANO USA could be used as a conduit to steal America’s military and intellectual secrets is completely incorrect.”

Cnano USA, Montgomery said, is completely independent from its Chinese parent company aside from sending it monthly financial reports. He insisted the company’s sole goal in Kansas was to make nanotubes, a technology developed in China, and turn them into a paste that can be used in electric vehicle batteries.

“I would never do anything that isn’t in the best interest of the United States,” Montgomery said. He said the USA subsidiary of the company had no employees that worked for the Chinese Communist Party. While their parent company did have employees in the party, Montgomery said, that is also common for American companies that do business in China.

Montgomery’s testimony comes as Kansas lawmakers consider policy barring foreign entities to own certain land in Kansas.

The Kansas House is considering a bill that would bar foreign companies, governments and individuals from owning or leasing non-residential land within 150 miles of a military installation if the country they are from is listed on the U.S. Department of Commerce’s foreign adversary list.

In addition to blocking new purchases of land, the bill requires any foreign companies already in Kansas to divest from land they own within the 150 mile radius – which includes the vast majority of the state.

A separate bill, promoted by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach in the state Senate, does not require divestment of land but requires any foreign entity, regardless of the country, purchasing three or more acres of land to seek approval from a council of state leaders.

Republicans in Kansas and across the country have become increasingly concerned about China’s influence on U.S. companies and the potential for the country to compromise the country’s food security through the purchase of farm land or spy on military installations.

“Cnano USA’s testimony failed to adequately address the overwhelming evidence that ties their parent company, Cnano Jiangsu, to President Xi, the CCP, and Chinese intelligence services,” LaTurner said.

“I applaud the Kansas legislature for working diligently to ensure we can protect our supply chains and crucial military bases from America’s greatest national security threat—the Chinese Communist Party.”

House Majority Leader Chris Croft, an Overland Park Republican who has led the effort to limit foreign land ownership in the House, said Montgomery’s testimony did not fully assuage his concerns with the company.

“There are some issues out there that still need to be addressed,” Croft said, adding he sought to craft the bill so that companies that self-reported would have more time to determine if they violated the new law and divest if needed. “Just get beyond these three companies, what do we not know, what companies don’t we know about?”

Montgomery also warned lawmakers that any effort to force existing companies to divest may be unconstitutional but Croft told lawmakers that element of the bill was important for determining what foreign companies are already in Kansas.

Throughout the hearing Montgomery faced detailed questions from lawmakers about the parent company’s links to the Chinese Communist Party and the status of individual company employees.

Rep. Stephanie Clayton, an Overland Park Democrat, compared the questions to the campaign against communists carried out in the U.S. government by U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s.

“I think everyone needs to calm down, take a deep breath and leave foreign policy to the federal government,” she said.

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