Backlash in Michigan: a township votes out officials over their support for Chinese battery plant
- Gotion High-Tech project could bring 2,500 new jobs to rural Green Charter Township, but residents fear alleged Communist Party ties
- New township board rescinds resolution of support for the project, throwing its future into doubt
On November 15, residents of Green Charter Township in Michigan assembled for a special meeting. At the gathering, chaired by the town’s newly elected supervisor, many thanked God and the grit of their community of some 3,000 people for “bringing democracy back”.
After months of protests, the occasion marked their first significant victory against an American subsidiary of a China-based company that plans to build an electric vehicle battery cell manufacturing plant in the rural township. A week earlier, five of seven local government officials were ousted in a recall election for approving the project. More than a thousand residents casted ballots; close to 60 per cent voted for change.
This month, the new township board rescinded a resolution of support for the facility the previous board had adopted last year, saying that it did not have sufficient time and legal expertise to go through the agreement and understand the project’s details and scope.
In the resolution the previous officials offered “strong support” for Gotion High-Tech to bring “technology and manufacturing” of products that will be “stamped Made in the USA” not imported from a foreign country, boosting the local economy and creating more than 2,500 jobs.
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They had also called Gotion’s entry into the community a “showcase for other manufacturers and businesses to know that we will welcome them and not scorn them and turn them away”.
But both public and political protests gained momentum this year after several local conservative-leaning media outlets highlighted Gotion’s Chinese origins and a company document that required its parent company to create an in-house Communist Party cell to operate in China.