Energy

China-Tied Battery Manufacturer Admits It Is Subsidized By Chinese Gov’t After All

The taxpayer-funded U.S. arm of a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) battery maker quietly admitted on July 20 that it has received subsidies from the Chinese government after an executive suggested that the foreign power has no presence in the American subsidiary.

Gotion, which is fully “owned and controlled” by its China-based parent company, Gotion High-Tech, disclosed in an amended Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filing last month that it has received Chinese government subsidies. Chuck Thelen, vice president of North American manufacturing for Gotion, told Politico in August 2023 that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has no presence in the American subsidiary and told concerned locals in June that the CCP is merely “a political party, like Republican or Democrat.”

The amended FARA filing now states “that Gotion is partially subsidized through government funding supplied by the People’s Republic of China.”

The company plans to establish facilities in Michigan’s Green Charter Township — within 100 miles of Camp Grayling, a National Guard installation where Taiwanese forces have trained — and Manteno, Illinois, with the help of generous state and federal subsidies. Local voters in Green Charter Township chose in November 2023 to oust five of the seven officials who had approved deals with Gotion, with the other two having resigned prior to the elections.

Gotion – Amended FARA by Nick Pope

“While it’s no surprise that the Chinese Communist Party is aiding and abetting Gotion, Gotion’s consistent deception regarding its ties to the CCP is inexcusable. American tax dollars should never be spent uplifting China’s national champions,” Republican Michigan Rep. John Moolenaar, who chairs the House Select Committee on the CCP and represents the area in which Gotion plans to build, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “I am hopeful this recent filing will trigger a new investigation to stop Gotion’s Michigan plans once and for all.”

Moolenaar introduced the NO GOTION Act in November 2023 to specifically restrict CCP-tied companies from cashing out on subsidies included in the Inflation Reduction Act, President Joe Biden’s signature climate law. Additionally, the Treasury Department has also proposed to give the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) more authority to review certain real estate transactions within 100 miles of U.S. military sites, which could ostensibly impact Gotion.

The DCNF has extensively covered Gotion’s ties to China and the CCP via Gotion High-Tech, which employed more than 900 CCP members as of 2022, as the DCNF reported in August 2023.

A traveling group of CCP officials set up a so-called talent recruitment “work station” at Gotion’s California headquarters in 2017,  and a top executive was pictured attending at least two meetings of Gotion High-Tech’s internal CCP committee in 2022, DCNF investigations have found. Additionally, video footage unearthed by the DCNF shows Gotion High-Tech employees dressed as Red Army soldiers and pledging loyalty to the CCP while on a company trip.

Former CIA Director Leon Panetta testified to Congress in January that there is a strong possibility that the CCP uses Gotion Inc.’s planned facility “to gain the kind of advantages that they want that are counter, frankly, to the interests of the United States.” Moreover, a group of five Republicans called on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to effectively bar Gotion High-Tech from shipping goods into the U.S. for alleged potential violations of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act via its relationship with the U.S.-blacklisted paramilitary entity known as the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, which the DCNF reported on in October 2023.

“Since its inception, People’s Republic of China-based and CCP-tied Gotion has moved fast and in secret with government and business elites in this ‘deal,’ and it has all the markings of a foreign influence operation and subnational incursion by China, and by its nature misinformation and disinformation has followed,” Joseph Cella, a former U.S. ambassador who now runs the Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group, told the DCNF. “Gotion and its backers continue to defy the direction of our national security and intelligence agencies to be vigilant and conduct due diligence to ensure transparency, integrity, and accountability, and this ‘deal’ remains a threat to our national security.”

Gotion and Gotion High-Tech did not respond immediately to requests for comment.