The office of Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker asserted that questions surrounding his state’s deal with a Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked battery company are akin to “xenophobia,” according to Politico.
Gotion Inc., which has extensive ties to the CCP through its parent company, China-based Gotion High-Tech, is poised to build a plant in Manteno, Illinois, within 30 miles of two U.S. military installations. Republicans sent a letter on Wednesday to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen asking the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to review the company’s ties to the CCP.
“MAGA Republicans have made themselves so irrelevant that they have to rely on xenophobia to gin up controversy for their base,” Pritzker’s office told Politico. “Maybe if Republicans in Washington focused on doing their jobs the government wouldn’t be on the verge of a shutdown.”
In the news: Locals In Illinois Furious Over Secretive Deal With CCP-Linked Battery Firm
The project will receive a subsidy package from the state worth more than $500 million, and it could potentially reap about $7.5 billion in federal tax credits over its first several years of production if the plant meets the company’s output projections.
The “shameful comments are on grand display for the world to see, and is what happens when government and business elites become intertwined with CCP subnational incursions and influence operations,” Joseph Cella, a former U.S. ambassador and co-founder of the Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group (MCESRG), told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This is a textbook disinformation and diversionary statement.”
The request from congressional Republicans followed a similar letter from the MCESRG urging the Treasury Department to compel Gotion Inc. to undergo a CFIUS review following numerous DCNF investigations into the company.
Chuck Thelen, vice president of North American manufacturing for Gotion Inc., asserted that the CCP does not have any presence in the North American arm of the company, according to an Aug. 13 report by Politico.
CCP officials established a talent recruitment “work station” at Gotion Inc.’s Fremont, California, headquarters in 2017, the DCNF reported. “Work stations” are a tactic that CCP officials use to attract Western talent to work in the Chinese mainland.
In the news: Michigan Rep. Slotkin Didn’t Want Questioned About Her Ties To CCP-Linked Battery Company
Gotion Inc. is listed with the Department of Justice as a Chinese foreign principal, the DCNF reported. Gotion High-Tech employed 923 active CCP members as of 2022, and also established a joint venture with a State Department-identified “Communist Chinese Military Company Subsidiary” in 2016, which was also discovered by DCNF investigations.
“All that we see here [in Illinois] are of enormous value to us: an enabling business environment, a supportive state government for the new energy industry and their highly efficient work, as well as the prospects of the State of Illinois in the coming years,” Li Zhen, Gotion High-Tech’s CEO and a member of the CCP, said in an official Illinois press release.
“It’s my pleasure to welcome a world-leading battery manufacturer — Gotion — to Illinois,” Pritzker remarked in the same statement.
Pritzker’s office, Gotion Inc. and Gotion High-Tech all did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
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