Voters fire entire local government over support for CCP-linked company
The voters of Green Charter Township in Michigan replaced their entire government overnight in a recall election last week.
Michigan taxpayer Jason Kruse, who led the recall effort, said the decision to vote out all five council board members came after the officials made a deal with an electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturer allied with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Gotion Inc., which manufactures EV batteries, is owned by Chinese tech firm Gotion High-Tech based in Hefei, China. The company pledges loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) several times throughout its Articles of Association. Article 9, for example, states: “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.”
Footage obtained by the Daily Caller in August shows Gotion High-Tech employees dressed as Red Army soldiers and pledging to “fight for communism for the rest of my life.” The footage was taken during company field trips to communist revolutionary memorials. Over 920 CCP members are reportedly employed by Gotion High-Tech.
Nevertheless, Gotion received approval in April from Michigan lawmakers to build an EV battery plant. In August the company announced its purchase of 270 rural acres in Green Charter Township, a community of about 3,219 people which sits approximately 60 miles from US military armories and within 100 miles of a US military facility.
The approval came despite fierce pushback from taxpayers who voiced concerns about hosting possible CCP elements. But Supervisor Jim Chapman, Treasurer Denise MacFarlane, Clerk Janet Clark and Trustees Roger E. Carroll and Dale Jernstadt — all Republicans — approved the move anyway, and on Tuesday they lost their jobs.
“It’s like – we have balloons flying over our country. We have Chinese trying to start their own police forces around the country, and we want to do business with these people? That's how we view this,” Kruse told the Daily Mail.
Within hours the former officials had cleaned out their offices and the town’s newly elected leaders, who ran with no party affiliation, had changed the locks on the government building.
“This is something Americans all across the country almost fantasize about, booting out their local government if they don’t like them and they’re not getting the job done,” reported NewsNation National Correspondent Brian Entin.
Corri Riebow, a taxpayer who replaced Janet Clark as town clerk, described the new council board's attitude toward Gotion.
“We just plan on making it as difficult as possible for them to continue their process," Riebow said. ”They don't even have a site planned, they don't have permits yet, so we're not their friend," she added.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has earmarked $175 million in taxpayer funds to subsidize Gotion's plant, which is expected to create over 2,000 jobs and earn the company hundreds of millions of dollars in federal and state grants.
In September Gotion also received approval from Illinois officials to build a $2 billion EV battery plant in Monteno, around 15 miles from a National Guard Army Aviation Support Facility (AASF) and readiness center. Opened in 2017, the facility houses over 200 soldiers, weapons simulators and ten UH-60 Blackhawks.
Gotion’s plant is expected to create 2,600 jobs while raking in $536 million in incentives and $125 million in capital funding from the State of Illinois, in addition to a 30-year tax abatement.
