The U.S. government is set to impose new restrictions that could limit two Chinese-linked battery companies from carrying out their plan to build plants next to military installations, the Treasury Department announced on Monday.
The Treasury Department issued a new proposal Monday to expand the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.’ (CFIUS) ability to prevent certain foreign-linked companies from buying up land near U.S. military installations inside the country. The proposed rule would stonewall both Cnano USA and Gotion Inc., two separate subsidiaries of Chinese-based companies that planned to buy land and build plants close to military installations in Michigan, Illinois and Kansas. (RELATED: China Holding Military Exercises Just Hundreds Of Miles From US Base In Europe)
“While this is a good and welcomed proposed rule by the Department of Treasury, it should have more teeth mandating national security vetting to all PRC-based and CCP-tied companies seeking to establish a presence in the United States of America,” former U.S. Ambassadors Joseph Cella and Peter Hoekstra told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “For too long PRC-based and CCP-tied companies have exploited our free and open system and engaged in subnational incursions to influence U.S. policies and advance malign PRC and CCP geopolitical interests.”
Gotion Inc., which is a “wholly and controlled” subsidiary of the Chinese-based and Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked Gotion High-Tech, planned to build a battery manufacturing plant within roughly 90 miles of Michigan’s Camp Grayling, the most expansive National Guard training facility in the country. It also planned to build a plant in Illinois within approximately 30 miles of an Army Reserve base and 15 miles from a National Guard facility.
Gotion High Tech keeps an internal CCP committee and as of 2022 employed 900 CCP members, including company CEO Li Zhen, according to the firm’s 2022 ESG report.
“The Company shall set up a Party organization and carry out Party activities in accordance with the Constitution of the Communist Party of China. The Company shall ensure necessary conditions for carrying out Party activities,” reads Gotion High-Tech’s “Articles of Association.”
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Background: Gotion Inc — subsidiary of China’s Gotion High-Tech which has extensive ties to CCP + China’s military, etc — has CA HQ & is building EV battery plants in MI & IL
(pic shows Gotion High-Tech chair Li Zhen w/ Xi Jinping) pic.twitter.com/rcCzAVmEF9
— Philip Lenczycki 蔡岳 (@LenczyckiPhilip) April 5, 2024
A Daily Caller News Foundation investigation previously discovered that a top Gotion Inc. executive attended multiple meetings with CCP members in China, despite the company’s vice president claiming that it had no ties to the communist party.
Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer previously boasted that Gotion Inc.’s new plant would bring an economic windfall and promote the state as a “global hub of mobility and electrification.” Michigan Democratic lawmakers had approved $175 million in state subsidies for Gotion to build its new multi-billion dollar plant, along with a series of tax breaks.
Gotion Inc. was also approved for $536 million in state subsidies to build its plant and additional tax breaks to rake in hundreds of millions in additional dollars, the office of Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, who originally announced the state’s partnership with the company, said in a statement in September.
The Treasury’s new rule would allow CFIUS to potentially prevent Gotion Inc. from building its new plants.
“We will remain vigilant in the fight against Gotion, as they have lobbyists and public relations firms deployed in hopes of convincing the Department of Treasury their presence in Michigan near Camp Grayling, where Taiwanese troops train, does not present a national security threat,” Cella and Hoekstra told the DCNF. Hoekstra is the current chair of Michigan’s Republican party.
The second Chinse-linked company affected by the Treasury’s proposed rules is Cnano USA, which planned to build an expansive battery manufacturing facility in Kansas within approximately 70 miles of the Whiteman Air Force Base (AFB).
Hat tip @ChinaInFocusNTD + @tiffanymeier_ for having me on to discuss @DailyCaller’s recent investigation into the CCP ties of Cnano, which intends to build a facility near US military sites
WATCH:
@committeeonccp @mandynicole410 @RogerMarshallMD pic.twitter.com/bk1EuwCeE7
— Philip Lenczycki 蔡岳 (@LenczyckiPhilip) December 29, 2023
Cnano USA is a fully-owned subsidiary of C-Nano Technology Co., Ltd., which itself is owned by the Chinese-based firm Cnano Jiangsu Technology Co., Ltd (Cnano Jiangsu), according to Cnano Jiangsu’s 2022 annual report. A DCNF investigation previously found that Cnano Jiangsu employs dozens of CCP members, which the chief executive of Cnano USA later admitted during a Kansas House committee hearing in March.
The DCNF also previously found that Cnano Jiangsu promotes communist party ideology and has participated in the Chinese government’s “863 Program,” which U.S. intelligence has indicated is an initiative that supports the development of the Chinese military and “provides funding and guidance for efforts to clandestinely acquire U.S. technology and sensitive economic information.”
The DCNF’s investigation had found that Cnano Jiangsu’s website previously advertised that it had “undertaken a number of national 893” initiatives. The mention of the 893 Program was scrubbed from the website without reason in December following the DCNF’s investigation.
Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed a GOP-sponsored bill in May that would have prevented Cnano USA from building its new $95 million plant near the aforementioned military sites, according to the Kansas Reflector. The Treasury’s one proposed regulation would prevent Cnano from building the plant regardless of Kelly’s decision.
Gotion Inc., Cnano USA, and Whitmer, Kelly and Pritzker’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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