Free Republic

While Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Michigan Economic Development Corporation contends it’s “not the outcome we hoped for,” residents in Mecosta County are celebrating its decision to nix $715 million in taxpayer-funded incentives for Gotion. MEDC officials on Thursday notified lawmakers that the company with strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party is in breach of its economic development contract, which was negotiated in secret by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration and select lawmakers just three years ago. “It’s about damn time,” Marjorie Steele, founder of the Economic Development Responsibility Alliance that opposed Gotion’s planned $2.4 billion EV battery plant, told Bridge Michigan....

The company behind a controversial Michigan electric vehicle battery plant quietly appeared as a Chinese foreign principal in an under-the-radar registration, disclosures reviewed by Fox News Digital show. Gotion Inc., a Fremont, California-based energy company, has faced uproar from Republican politicians and residents in the state over potential Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence concerns since it first unveiled plans to construct the multi-billion dollar facility with the support of Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Gotion Inc.'s parent company, Gotion High-Tech, is headquartered in Hefei City, China. Chuck Thelen, Gotion's North American manufacturing vice president, has attempted to alleviate worries and...

A rural community in Michigan has hailed a 'huge victory' after a Chinese-owned industrial firm backed out of buying local farmland. Residents of the idyllic Green Charter Township, around 50 miles east of Lake Michigan, say they were 'bullied' into accepting the takeover, but refused to do so. Gotion, a company that 'pledges allegiance' to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), did, however, complete the purchase of 260 acres of derelict industrial land in the township and 10 acres of disused farmland last week. It comes as data shows Chinese firms now own more than $2billion worth of US farmland, up...