Obama blocks Chinese wind farm plan The US president has blocked an attempt by a Chinese-owned company to build wind farms in Oregon close to a navy site used for testing drones and training for electronic warfare. Barack Obama said in a statement he had decided that Ralls, the company behind the project, "might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States." Lawyers suggested the decision could act as a deterrent to other Chinese companies thinking of investing in the US. However, the administration argued that the move did not reflect a general opposition to Chinese investment. It said: "The president's decision is specific to this transaction and is not a precedent with regard to any other foreign direct investment from China or any other country." In an order that gave a terse explanation of the president's reasoning but included a detailed list of instructions, Ralls was told it had to sell its holdings in the wind farm project within 90 days, along with all associated intellectual property and contracts, and remove all its equipment and structures, including concrete foundations, from the sites within 14 days. The company said in a statement: "We regret President Obama's order today prohibiting a jobs-creating wind farm project in Oregon. The project poses no national security threat whatsoever. It added: "Scores of other wind turbines already operate in the area where Ralls's project is located." The US government revealed in court papers filed last week that it was concerned about Ralls" project because one of its four wind farm sites was within restricted airspace used by the naval training facility, and the other three were within five miles of that airspace. The facility is used for training in air-to-air combat, bombing and electronic warfare, and for testing drones, among other operations. Ralls is owned by two executives of Sany, the Chinese earthmoving equipment manufacturer, which is developing a wind turbine business. The president's decision upholds an earlier order from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, an inter-agency government body, for the company to pull out of the project. Ralls had taken the unusual step of challenging the Cfius order in court, and last week won an agreement from the government that it could carry on some building work pending a decision from the president, who has final authority on these issues. The Treasury department, which chairs Cfius, said in its statement that the decision "demonstrates the administration's commitment to protecting national security while maintaining the United States" longstanding policy on open investment." The only other time a president has used an order like this to enforce a Cfius ruling was in 1990, when companies backed by the Chinese government attempted to buy Mamco Manufacturing, a Seattle-based aerospace company, but were blocked by George H.W. Bush. Ralls has hired two leading legal officials from the administration of George W. Bush, Viet Dinh, a former assistant attorney-general, and Paul Clement, a former solicitor-general, as its legal advisers.