China
Biden administration gives $175 million taxpayer dollars to Chinese electric vehicle plant in MI
A Chinese electric vehicle battery plant is going ahead with construction on a $175 million Michigan plant, thanks to President Biden’s administration. According to Fox News, the $175 million is direct taxpayer funding, after “the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) decided that the proposed plant was not a covered real estate purchase under the Defense Prohibition Act, which ultimately deemed the company a non-threat to national security.”
The committee’s decision came after development of Gotion, a subsidiary of parent company Gotion High-Tech, was halted “and requested a federal review, after intense criticism about the company’s ties to China and concern from local residents”, Fox reported.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reports:
Some Michigan residents have stated they feel “angry” with Democratic lawmakers for approving this decision and feel concerned about communist influence coming to their state. Gotion High-Tech’s corporate bylaws state that the company must operate under the constitution of the Chinese Communist Party.
“The Party Committee of the Company shall perform its duties in accordance with the Constitution of the Communist Party of China and other Party regulations,” state the bylaws.
“I think that any Chinese communist plant buying up 700 acres of Michigan land is a concern to all citizens throughout the state,” said Michigan resident Cheryl Vitito during a Michigan Senate committee hearing, according to Fox. “We don’t want the CCP here by way of the Gotion plant as they have no regard for the value and dignity of human life.”
Following the CFIUS report, Gotion said in a statement that it “would continue to move forward with due diligence” on the Chinese-owned project.
“We voluntarily submitted all the needed documents to the U.S. Department of Treasury Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to be transparent and accountable and received the response that it is not a covered transaction,” said Gotion’s VP of North American operations Chuck Thelen, according to Fox.
Gotion’s battery plant will cost $2.4 billion to build, and the company will receive $175 million in direct taxpayer money to help fund its construction. Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has commended the proposed project and said it will shore up the state’s status as the “global hub of mobility and electrification,” Fox reported.
Reportedly President Joe Biden is making deals with Chinese President Xi Jinping to help improve anti-drug trafficking measures. China is one of the top fentanyl producers and distributors, culminating in a pandemic of fentanyl overdoses and deaths in the United States.
The Biden administration will be lifting sanctions on a Chinese government ministry, in exchange for bolstering anti-drug trafficking measures, Bloomberg reported. “We’re hoping to see some progress on that issue this coming week,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Monday, according to the New York Post. “That could then open the door to further cooperation on other issues where we aren’t just managing things, but we’re actually delivering tangible results.”
The Daily Caller News Foundation noted that should a deal materialize, it will be at least the third time that China has promised to get tough on fentanyl. In 2016, China agreed to increase counter-narcotics operations, and Xi again agreed to launch a crackdown in 2018. Nonetheless, China and Mexico are “the primary source countries for fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked directly into the United States,” according to a 2020 DEA intelligence report.
“China remains the primary source of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked through international mail and express consignment operations environment, as well as the main source for all fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the United States.”
President Joe Biden and Xi are meeting for the first time in over a year during this week’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco. Sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) will crack down on Chinese companies manufacturing chemical precursors for fentanyl in exchange for the U.S. lifting sanctions on the Ministry of Public Security’s Institute of Forensic Science, which the Commerce Department added to the Entity List in 2020 for “engaging in human rights violations and abuses” in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
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