by Bruce Walker
Local and national efforts to stymie the building of an electric vehicle battery components plant in Michigan were dealt another setback on Tuesday.
The U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment declared that the purchase of farmland in Big Rapids by Gotion was not within its jurisdiction. Opponents of the $2.4 billion plant have protested ties by its parent company to China and raised concerns about the environment.
Gotion Inc. is a North American company in California that is a subsidiary of Gotion High-Tech in Shanghai.
Total state and local incentives provided Gotion total approximately $1.4 billion. Included is $175 million in state subsidies and a 30-year property tax break valued at $540 million.
The Committee on Foreign Investment was asked by local township officials, and current and former legislators to investigate whether the plant was in violation of the Defense Production Act of 1950, according to reporting from Crain’s Detroit Business.
In April, Gotion volunteered for a review by the committee.
U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Midland, said Gotion’s claim of transparency is questionable as the company has not publicly released any documents it submitted for the review. He also noted the company hasn’t released the nondisclosure documents it required Michigan officials to sign.
“Gotion has not disclosed the materials it submitted to CFIUS and has not released the NDAs it forced Michigan officials to sign,” Moolenaar said in a statement. “While it insists on secrecy, one document everyone has seen is Gotion High Tech’s articles of association where it pledges allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party and says it will carry out party activities. Today’s announcement from Gotion is not an approval from CFIUS, but another example of the broken CFIUS process where the government claims deals are outside its jurisdiction. Last year, CFIUS said it had no jurisdiction to block a CCP-affiliated company from buying farmland less than 15 miles from an Air Force base in North Dakota. The military and the local community had to stop the deal because CFIUS failed to protect our nation’s security.
“Today, Indiana announced a massive battery factory investment with GM and Samsung. Why have Michigan’s leaders failed to attract those investments and partnered with CCP-based companies instead?”
Former U.S. Ambassadors Peter Hoekstra and Joseph Cella also were among those calling on the U.S. Department of Justice for investigation of Gotion and Michigan officials for potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Siting for the plant will be on 408 acres in Big Rapids Township. A previous plan had called for a 115-acre portion of the battery plant’s site to be located in adjacent Green Charter Township, but that plan was scuttled by Gotion after Green officials voted for a federal review.
As previously reported by The Center Square, part of the controversy centers on Gotion’s affiliation with the Chinese Communist Party.
Other concerns expressed by Mecosta County residents are environmental issues related to the toxicity of the minerals used to develop electric vehicle batteries and the Manistee River watershed.
In a statement, Chuck Thelen, vice president of Gotion’s North American manufacturing, said, “We voluntarily submitted all the needed documents to the U.S. Department of Treasury Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to be transparent and accountable and received the response that it is not a covered transaction.”
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Bruce Walker is a regional editor at The Center Square. He previously worked as editor at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s MichiganScience magazine and The Heartland Institute’s InfoTech & Telecom News.
Photo “Gotion” by Gotion.
