- Two former U.S. ambassadors representing the Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group (MCESRG) requested that the Treasury Department compel Gotion, Inc., a Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked battery firm, to undergo review by the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
- The request follows a series of detailed Daily Caller News Foundation investigations into Gotion, Inc. and its China-based parent company, Gotion High-Tech, including a Friday report by the Daily Caller News Foundation which found that Gotion High-Tech established a joint venture company with a State Department-identified “Communist Chinese Military Company Subsidiary” in 2016.
- “Many reasonably-thinking people consider Gotion to be evading CFIUS,” Joseph Cella, a former U.S. ambassador who wrote and signed the letter, told the DCNF.
Two former U.S. ambassadors called on the Treasury Department Friday to “review” a Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked battery company with operations in the U.S. following detailed Daily Caller News Foundation investigations.
Through the Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group (MCESRG), former U.S. Ambassadors Peter Hoekstra and Joseph Cella called on the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to compel Gotion, Inc., a subsidiary of China-based Gotion High-Tech, to file disclosure paperwork and submit to a full CFIUS review. Their request follows a Friday DCNF report which found that Gotion High-Tech established a joint venture company with a State Department-identified “Communist Chinese Military Company Subsidiary” in 2016, as well as several other DCNF investigations detailing Gotion, Inc.’s connections to the CCP via its parent company.
Gotion, Inc.’s previously-filed paperwork “provides narrow, de minimis, vague and incomplete information, and lacks the strict scrutiny and due diligence necessary for this massive and complex transaction that is shrouded by binding and punitive 5-year non-disclosure agreements,” Cella told the DCNF of Gotion, Inc.’s plan to build a facility in Michigan. “Many reasonably-thinking people consider Gotion to be evading CFIUS.” (RELATED: Dem Senate Candidate Who Signed NDA Covering CCP-Linked EV Battery Maker Votes Down Bill To Block Gas Car Bans)
The company is poised to build a factory near Big Rapids, Michigan, within about 100 miles of a military installation that has hosted Taiwanese soldiers receiving training from members of the National Guard. Another Gotion, Inc. plant planned for Manteno, Illinois, is within about 30 miles of two other U.S. military installations, the DCNF reported.
Former Ambs. Hoekstra & Cella sent a letter this evening requesting US Treasury compel PRC-based, CCP-tied Guoxuan/@Gotion48660 to file a Form 800 & submit to a full CFIUS review on account of apparent ties to a Communist Chinese Military Company Subsidiary (CCMC).👇 pic.twitter.com/0t6VnOqTC3
— Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group (@MCESRG) September 15, 2023
The written request to the Treasury Department suggests that the initial review of the company’s subsidized activities in Michigan may have been insufficient, prompting “grave concern,” particularly “in light of the dramatically escalating tensions with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the scaling national security threat presented by the PRC and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”
Gotion High-Tech maintains a business relationship with China Energine, a Chinese company that “may be eligible for listing” under an executive order that would prohibit U.S. investors from purchasing or selling the firm’s securities,” the DCNF reported Friday.
That DCNF report followed several others which exposed Gotion, Inc.’s relationship to the CCP by way of its parent company. Chuck Thelen, the vice president of North American manufacturing at Gotion Inc., stated that “the Chinese Communist Party has no presence in the North American company,” Politico reported on Aug. 13.
Gotion, Inc. is listed as a Chinese foreign principal in filings with the Department of Justice, and separate Foreign Agent Registration Act paperwork discloses that Gotion, Inc. is “wholly owned and controlled” by Gotion High-Tech, as reported by the DCNF.
Parent company Gotion High-Tech employed 923 active members of the Chinese Communist Party as of 2022, including CEO Li Zhen, the DCNF reported.
CCP officials also established a talent recruitment “work station” at Gotion Inc.’s Fremont, California, headquarters in 2017, the DCNF reported. “Work stations” are a key tactic that CCP officials use to attract Western talent to work in the Chinese mainland.
Additionally, employees of Gotion High-Tech pledged CCP oaths and dressed as Red Army soldiers during company excursions, the DCNF has reported. Numerous Gotion High-Tech employees wore matching Red Army uniforms while swearing to “fight for communism to the end of my life.”
The White House, the Treasury Department, the office of Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the office of Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Gotion High-Tech and Gotion, Inc. all did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
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