China-linked US$2.3 billion battery factory in Michigan raises community alarm

Gotion High-tech’s American subsidiary and township officials tout 2,000 new jobs within 10 years, but some residents fear ‘one square mile of CCP’

No plot ‘to make Big Rapids a centre to spread communism’, says company vice-president who cautions against being ‘force-fed a big fear sandwich’

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Michigan Republican state representative Angela Rigas (centre) joins protesters outside Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, on Wednesday. Photo: Angela Rigas

Published: 4:45am, 7 Apr 2023Updated: 5:40am, 7 Apr 2023

A China-linked project eligible for almost US$1.1 billion in state incentives has become a flashpoint between some concerned residents and local officials in a small rural community in Michigan.

Hundreds picketed outside a local university on Wednesday to oppose a publicly owned Chinese company from setting up a battery plant in their neighbourhood in Green Charter Township in the city of Big Rapids.

Last July the community learned that it had been chosen by Gotion Inc for a US$2.3 billion factory to make components used in lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles.

The announcement came with a promise of creating more than 2,000 jobs in the next eight to 10 years. The chairman of the township and his board of trustees voted unanimously in December to support the investment. Of the US$1.1 billion in state incentives, US$907 million would come in the form of tax breaks.

A poster promoting opposition to the Gotion Inc project. Image: Courtesy of Facebook group “Keep Michigan Pure”

But some residents and state politicians have raised questions about the company’s links to the Chinese Communist Party and its intentions to use the facility to promote communism.

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