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Sand among green rolling hills and tall pines, Lori Brock’s Story Farm encapsulates northern Michigan. A five-day-old mare moves around the pen while little black pigs wander through a barn and donkeys graze in fields surrounded by white fences.
It’s a bucolic way of life in Green Township, but Brock and many of her neighbors believe it may be threatened by an unlikely adversary—the Chinese Communist Party.
Just south of her property, a company called Gotion is moving forward with a massive $2.4 billion, 2 million square foot (186,000 square meter) plant that will produce lithium batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). It is a US-based company, but its parent company is Chinese.
Brock and her neighbors say they are fighting to preserve the rural character of Green Township and prevent a “national security risk” from a Chinese company. They insist they are on the verge of failing the project.
In the US, anti-China sentiment threatens to derail the transition to electric cars. That transition is partially funded by President Joe Biden’s Deflation Act, but many of his projects — which also aim to revive struggling rural economies — are in Republican areas and fueled by Chinese funding that some residents oppose. .
In this context, Green Township – with a population of 3,200 people – represents only one part of the wider economic conflict between the US and China. Some analysts are convinced of this Beijing is winning the race to store clean energy, the US is in the difficult position of having to embrace Chinese technology. On Tuesday, Biden announced a 100% tariff for electric cars made in China as part of a package of measures designed to protect American manufacturers from cheap imports.
The stakes are especially high in Michigan, which is trying to maintain its position as the world’s auto capital in the EV era. The state’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, and legislative leaders, including many Republicans, have lined up billions of dollars in tax incentives to ensure companies will invest there. Gotion itself is expected to receive about $715 million in government incentives.
“They Messed With The Wrong Villagers”
Gotion’s plans emerged in late 2022, sparking a bitter battle that has continued ever since, with alleged death threats, claims of sabotage, smashed mailboxes and local authorities who had backed the project being rejected.
Jim Chapman, the township supervisor who supports Gotion’s plans, did speak publicly about the threats he got. He said they included references to the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms and threats to send in the “Michigan Militia,” a possible reference to the self-styled anti-government militia group.
Chapman, a former police officer, said he began attending town hall meetings armed and wearing a bulletproof vest.
Others against the megafactory say they too have received death threats, but people on both sides are reluctant to divulge details.
Gotion’s supporters dismiss fears of communist influence as far-fetched and believe opposition to the plans has been fueled by outside political forces linked to Donald Trump who don’t want Governor Whitmer to “win.” Last June, Trump told a rally in the state that the push for electric cars was “killing Michigan and it’s a total vote for China.” Mecosta County, where Green Township is located, has the fifth-highest poverty rate in the state, and supporters of the plan see Gotion as an economic boon.
Opponents of the project, who formed the Mecosta Environmental and Security Alliance (MESA), call themselves “No-Gos” and question why the new generation of EV projects aren’t being built in the region’s cities instead.
“We don’t want smokestacks here,” says Brock. MESA believes that industry and government officials perceive rural communities as financially “weak” and full of “a bunch of peasants only interested in raising horses.” Another resident, Ormand Hook, said: “They got involved with the wrong villagers.”
“I’ve been waiting a long time for an opportunity like Gotion”
Just south of Green Township is Big Rapids. At her creamery and gift shop, Carleen Rose sees empty windows and young people leaving for lack of good jobs. The 2,300 positions, which Gotion says will pay an average of $24 an hour, could be a desperately needed economic antidote.
“We’ve been waiting a long time for an opportunity like Gotion to come along,” says Rose. “The sheer number of people who would be employed by this company is unbelievable.” A common joke, she adds with a sneer, is that the Chinese will send Communists to spy on her cream recipes.
MESA, by contrast, scoffs at the idea that China is not a threat. The custard recipe joke is “foaming with ignorance,” says Bruce Baker, an accountant and spokesman for MESA.
Reflecting on the division the plans have created, Rose says: “What happened to this community – it just saddens me.”
A matter of priorities
Founded in China in 2006, Gotion established its US subsidiary in California in 2014, and its US board of directors is about equal parts German, American and Chinese. The parent company’s bylaws require it to “carry out party activities in accordance with the constitution of the Communist Party of China.” Gotion already has operations in California and Ohio and has told residents that its North American operations will have nothing to do with communism.
Gotion’s U.S. subsidiary did not respond to a request for comment for this story, but Chuck Thelen, Gotion’s vice president of North American operations, engaged with local communities by holding a series of virtual town hall meetings. He said one in April of last year: “Despite what all current politicians may say, there is no Communist plot within Gotion to turn Big Rapids into a center for the propagation of Communism.”
It is clear that the company is rapidly expanding its presence abroad. In 2023, its revenue outside China is reported to have increased 116% to 6.4 billion yuan ($884 million), thanks in part to its partnership with Western brands such as Volkswagen.
Michael Dunne, the founder of Dunne Insights, an EV consultancy, says Gotion is a “very impressive” and “genuinely private company” looking to grow by expanding internationally, away from crowded competition in China, which is dominated by battery giants like BYD and CATL.
“At the same time, they would not have reached the size they have without some level of government support… At any point the risk is that [Chinese Communist] the party has a new directive and says we don’t work in the US. Whatever the ownership of the company is, it’s very important,” says Dunn.
While not commenting specifically on Gotion, FBI Director Christopher Wray said during the February congressional hearing hearings on China’s cybersecurity that such projects “may still raise national security concerns as they provide a means of [China] to, if they want to use that access, to conduct surveillance or other operations that undermine our national security.
Tim Hahn, a Republican who supports the project because of its economic benefits, wrote off such fears as “an element of homegrown, mindless bigotry and xenophobia.”
“You really don’t need to have a well-constructed argument to convince people that it’s bad for China to do business near you — just go out and shout ‘China, China, China, CCP,'” he says.
As the fighting between the natives moved, each side accused the other of criminal acts. Brock says she has received death threats and claims to have found motor oil in her animals’ waterers.
“I hope no one holds a grudge”
Opponents of the plan say accusations of outside influence by political forces tied to Trump are false and point to the successful recall last November of five of the seven Green Township board members who supported the project as evidence of broad support. . The new board, which now has a majority opposed to Gotion’s plans, immediately voted to symbolically withdraw support for the project last November, even though the municipality had already signed a development agreement.
The agreement is invalid, the new board argued, saying it was signed behind closed doors and violates the Open Meetings Act. Gotion disagrees, is already clearing the trees from the site, and in early April filed a federal lawsuit alleging Green Township breached the agreement by wrongfully scuttling a project in which Gotion had already invested millions of dollars.
Despite the personal nature of the attacks spawned by the dispute, Rose is optimistic that the wounds will heal once the battle for Gotion is over.
“I just hope in a few years when this is all done we can all get back together and see what else we can fight for,” she joked. “Seriously, I hope no one holds a grudge, even though it was so rude and disappointing.”
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