LANSING, Mich. — Growing concerns over national security connected to a potential electric vehicle battery plant were on full display in Lansing as state legislators and former U.S. ambassadors held a press conference on Tuesday.
The focus was centered on a Gotion Incorporated plant that could soon be built in Green Township. Gotion's parent company, Guoxuan High-Tech, has come under scrutiny for connection to the Chinese Communist Party.
"Now's the time for the governor, the Senate, the state legislature to just step back and put a pause," former U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands Peter Hoekstra said.
Also in attendance were residents of two potential battery plant locations, one near the Gotion plant and another near a Ford Motor Company plant in Marshall.
While Ford is an American company with no allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party, Marshall resident Julie Bryant said she remained concerned.
"There are so many issues," Bryant said. "There's corporate welfare, there's a national security, we are 12 miles away from my sensitive Air National Guard Base, a federal center, amongst other things."
The second resident, Marjorie Steele of Mecosta County, expressed concerns over the environment and labor she feels exist in the battery manufacturing industry as a whole, including what the U.S. Department of Labor has identified in certain areas of the industry as child labor used to mine cobalt - an ingredient in lithium-ion batteries.
"I think that it's important to mention that not only is the environmental impact in our own backyard important to us, but our residents are globally conscious," Steele said.
The two said the issue transcends partisan lines, with Steele saying she voted twice for Governor Gretchen Whitmer who has touted the plants as important milestones for the state economy.
House Democrats echoed praises similar to Whitmer's as they passed incentive funding for the plants last month.
"This is an extraordinary, serious moment and it calls for us to govern seriously, to put aside rhetoric, to put aside foreign policy hypotheticals and do what is right for Michigan," Rep. Phil Skaggs (D-East Grand Rapids) said.
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved incentive funding for battery plants in Van Buren and Marshall during its April 12 meeting, but held off on approving funding for Gotion.
Gotion's Vice President of North American Affairs Chuck Thelen has said that Gotion Inc. is a subsidiary of its Chinese parent company and is independent from any communist influence.
"Has the Communist Party penetrated this company? No," Thelen said during a panel discussion for community members. "Do we have articles of incorporation that require a specific paragraph where you don't do business in the country of China? Yes."
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