Rules proposed by the Biden-Harris administration in July intended to stop foreigners from purchasing land near U.S. military installations fail to cover a Chinese Communist Party-linked company building a facility 63 miles from a key National Guard base.
The new Treasury Department rules would empower federal authorities to apply scrutiny to foreign purchases of land within 100 miles of over 50 more military bases than previously allowed, including the National Guard’s Camp Grayling in Michigan, but would not apply to past foreign transactions near military facilities. As a result, a battery manufacturing plant being developed by Gotion, a firm with deep ties to the Chinese government, near Camp Grayling would escape expanded scrutiny under the proposed rules.
“Gotion may have scored a win of an exemption or special treatment by Treasury through its high-powered and well-connected D.C. lobbyists and legal team,” former U.S. ambassadors Joseph Cella and Peter Hoekstra told The Washington Free Beacon, who first reported on the implications of the rules. “This latest development is yet another example of how PRC-based and CCP-tied Gotion is involved in an influence operation and unrestricted warfare.”
Gotion’s China-based parent company, Gotion High-Tech, engaged in the 863 Program and Torch Program, two CCP-backed programs designed to acquire research and technology for the benefit of the People’s Liberation Army.
The 863 Program “focuses on both military and civilian science and technology” and aims “to accelerate the acquisition and development of science and technology in the [People’s Republic of China],” according to the House Select Committee on the CCP. The Torch Program, meanwhile, exists to create “incubators and high technology zones” for the benefit of China, according to a 2011 report prepared for the U.S.-Chinese Economic and Security Review Commission by CENTRA Technology,
Gotion is entirely “owned and controlled” by Gotion High-Tech, according to a Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filing uploaded in July. “Gotion is partially subsidized through government funding supplied by the People’s Republic of China,” the FARA filing reads.
The apparent exception secured by Gotion followed a massive uptick in lobbying, with the Chinese-linked firm spending $2.7 million on lobbyists in the first half of 2024, including on operations aimed at influencing the White House and Treasury Department, according to disclosures.
Cella and Hoekstra were previously optimistic about the rule, telling the Daily Caller News Foundation that it would give the Treasury Department “more teeth mandating national security vetting.” The two, however, have since filed a comment with the department requesting that the rule be altered to retroactively apply to Gotion, according to the Free Beacon.
“It is highly irregular and problematic while Treasury is closely tracking a ‘deal’ in Michigan with PRC-based and CCP-tied Gotion, it would include Camp Grayling on the list of these installations, yet exempts Gotion from the vetting even though its proposed location is well within the extended 100 mile range,” the two former ambassadors said.
Gotion also appears confident that the rule will not apply retroactively.
“It is our understanding the Department of Treasury’s proposed rule change would not be retroactive, and only apply to new land purchase proposals,” Gotion vice president Chuck Thelen said, according to the Free Beacon. “Gotion continues to welcome and encourage any additional CFIUS [Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States] reviews if it does decide to purchase additional property in the future.”
The CFIUS, which the Treasury Department oversees, reviewed Gotion’s initial purchase of 270 acres of land in Green Charter Township, Michigan, to construct its $2.4 billion electric vehicle battery component plant and, in June 2023, determined that it could go through, according to the Free Beacon. The purchase was greenlit because it was determined that it was not a covered real estate transaction or purchase, which would no longer be the case under the proposed rules.
Michigan, led by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, has set aside $175 million to subsidize Gotion’s facility, and the CCP-linked company was eligible to claim tax credits from President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
Former President Donald Trump has slammed the planned Gotion facility, saying that it is “‘bad for the state and our country” on Truth Social earlier this week.
“A few weeks ago, the Chinese Electric Vehicle battery company that Michigan Democrats support, Gotion, claimed that I support its EV battery plant planned for Northern Michigan. That is not true,” Trump wrote. “The Gotion plant would be very bad for the State and our Country. It would put Michiganders under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing. I AM 100% OPPOSED! As your President, I will make America’s Auto Industry bigger and stronger than it has ever been before, PROTECT American Workers, and TERMINATE the Green New Scam.”
The American military trains Taiwanese soldiers during annual military exercises at Camp Grayling, The Wall Street Journal reported. U.S. intelligence has found that the Chinese military wants to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, according to Defense News.
Gotion employees have professed oaths to the CCP and dressed up as communist soldiers during company trips. As of August 2023, Gotion High-Tech employed 923 CCP members.
Gotion and the Treasury Department did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
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