Democratic Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin came out against a Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked company during a campaign rally this week, after enduring months of criticism from Republicans over the matter.
Slotkin, currently running for Senate in the state, had previously not publicly opposed a plan by Gotion High-Tech — a subsidiary of the Chinese-owned firm Gotion Inc. — to build a massive battery plant in Michigan, according to Politico Pro. Slotkin had fallen under criticism from Republican lawmakers and organizations who claimed she had signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) on discussing Gotion’s projects.
“To me, until there’s a national security vetting, I don’t love the idea of moving forward on any project or any sale of farmland [to a Chinese-based entity],” Slotkin told reporters following a campaign event in southern Michigan this week, according to Politico Pro. “I believe that we need to not just think about economic [implications], but also about the national security implications of Chinese-affiliated companies.”
Gotion High-Tech is “wholly owned and controlled” by Gotion Inc., which maintains an internal CCP committee and employed hundreds of CCP members as of 2022, the Daily Caller News Foundation first uncovered. A DCNF investigation found that a top Gotion Inc. executive had attended multiple meetings with CCP officials in China.
Some of Gotion High-Tech’s internal documents declare that “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.”
Further, Gotion Inc. has two CCP-backed programs to acquire advanced technologies that could benefit China’s military, according to documents reviewed by the DCNF. The U.S.-based subsidiary Gotion High-Tech quietly admitted this summer that, in addition to its backing from Gotion Inc., it also received subsidies directly from the Chinese government.
Gotion High-Tech has had plans to build a manufacturing plant within 90 miles of Michigan’s Camp Grayling, which is the most expansive National Guard training facility in the country.
Slotkin’s history with Gotion and whether the NDA has prevented her from speaking out against the company remains somewhat unclear, but has been a line of attack from Republican officials and organizations, who previously raised concerns that she signed the agreement in 2022 to engage in discussions in an unnamed Chinese battery firm’s proposed factory.
Some organizations claimed that the unnamed company was Gotion, which Fox News reported in late 2023 was accurate, citing internal documents.
Given that she was a CIA official prior to her time in Congress, “it was unconscionable she and her staff would even begin thinking about being even remotely tied to an NDA that involved bringing a PRC-based and CCP-tied company into the heartland of Michigan,” Joseph Cella, a former U.S. ambassador and co-founder of the Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group, told the DCNF. “Making it worse, signing such an NDA is contrary to sunshine laws and the spirit of transparency an elected official owes their taxpaying constituents. The whole “deal” is highly irregular and has been corrupted from head to tail from the outset.”
The representative’s campaign has previously denied the allegations around an NDA with Gotion, saying in August that she “never signed any agreement related to the Gotion project or the Chinese government” and any claims otherwise are a “completely false attack.”
Slotkin is in a hotly contested Senate race against her Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, to fill the seat of Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who is retiring. She is currently leading Rogers by 10 points among definite voters, according to a WDIV/Detroit News poll conducted from Aug. 26 through Aug. 29.
Slotkin and Gotion did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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