Legal Insurrection has been following the progress of a China-linked Electric Vehicle (EV) battery factory that is slated for construction in Michigan for several years.
- Michigan Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in March 2022: ‘We cannot allow China to outcompete us on chip manufacturing
- Michigan Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in October 2022: Whitmer supports building a Chinese-owned battery plant in the state.
- Michigan Senate Appropriations Committee approved $175 million to build an EV battery plant owned by Chinese manufacturer Gotion
The last time we touched upon this subject, Michigan voters tossed out of office the entire town council that had voted in support of the Chinese EV battery plant.
Now Michigan has officially canceled a $175 million grant for the controversial electric vehicle battery plant proposed by Gotion Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of the Chinese company Gotion High-Tech, amid mounting criticism over the firm’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and repeated project delays.
Gotion Inc.’s plans to build a $2.4 billion electric vehicle battery plant near Big Rapids are dead, following years of lawsuits, delays and controversy over the firm’s ties to China.Michigan officials on Thursday released a letter stating the company was in default of its agreement with the state, which had pledged $175 million to the company and purchased 270 acres for the project in Green Charter Township.“This is not the outcome we hoped for,” the Michigan Economic Development Corporation [MEDC] said Thursday in a statement.
Gotion Inc. had violated the terms of the grant agreement as it hadn’t conducted construction or development activities on the proposed site of the facility for more than 120 days. Michigan is now going to battle for the return of millions of dollars.
According to the MEDC, the state is seeking to claw back $23.6 million that was disbursed toward the purchase of the site’s land near Big Rapids, about 200 miles (322 kilometers) northwest of Detroit. $26.4 million remaining from the grant that was not spent will be returned to the state, Emerson said. Citing a lack of progress on the project, a different $125 million grant was not distributed to Gotion.The news was first reported by Crain’s Detroit Business.The state also said two project-related lawsuits are imposing a “material adverse effect” on its progress, which counts as grounds for default. The letter said that if the defaults are not resolved in 30 days, the state expects repayment of $23.6 million. That deadline passed Oct. 17.
The move is being hailed as a win for Michigan and the country.
And it’s a resounding victory for opponents who decried the project over its CCP ties and how state leaders fast-tracked it in secret with minimal public input. Opponents included state and federal Republican lawmakers, national security experts, local residents, and municipal leaders.”This was a textbook subnational incursion and influence operation. You don’t subsidize these things, you stop them,” former U.S. ambassador Joseph Cella, a cofounder of the Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group, told the Free Beacon. “Unconscionably, the government and business elites who conceived and championed this ‘deal’ in a very secretive and fast-moving manner did not perform basic strict scrutiny and due diligence.””These projects were never designed to benefit the local communities,” added Marjorie Steele, the director of the Economic Development Responsibility Alliance of Michigan. “They were designed to allow individuals to profit. It’s as simple as that.”
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