Voters in Mecosta County, Michigan, successfully ousted six local elected Republicans who supported taxpayer-funded subsidies for a Chinese company with deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to build an Electric Vehicle (EV) battery plant in their community.
On Tuesday night, voters in Green Charter Township and Big Rapids Township recalled a total of six local elected officials combined — all Republicans — who voted in favor of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) plan to have CCP-linked Gotion Inc. build a $2.4 billion EV battery plant in the area.
Michigan Live reports:
Voters in Mecosta County ousted a township board over its support of a controversial electric vehicle battery plant. [Emphasis added]
Green Charter Township supervisor Jim Chapman, clerk Janet Clark, treasurer Denise MacFarlane and trustees Roger Carroll and Dale Jernstadt were all recalled Tuesday, Nov. 7. Two other trustees reportedly resigned earlier this year. And Big Rapids Charter Township Supervisor Bill Stanek was also removed from office. [Emphasis added]
Lori Brock, a local activist who has been organizing the recall effort and protests against the CCP-linked project, told the Detroit News that she is “thrilled beyond belief” that the slate of Republicans was ousted and replaced by new officials.
“This recall shows how the community did not want this,” Brock said. “This just means we have a voice again. We may be small, but we are powerful.”
For nearly a year, local Michiganders have been protesting Whitmer’s plans, which were subsequently approved by President Joe Biden’s administration. The project would have Gotion rake in potentially billions in American taxpayer money through subsidies.
In June Biden’s Treasury Department approved the Gotion battery plant project outside of Big Rapids. At the beginning of this month, Gotion purchased nearly 300 acres of land in Green Charter Township where the plant will eventually sit — just 100 miles from Camp Grayling, which is the largest United States National Guard training site.
In August, the Daily Caller revealed that Gotion’s parent company employs hundreds of CCP members and is led by a member of the CCP, despite repeated denials from executives that the company is controlled by the party.
“Gotion High-Tech founded a CCP branch in 2010 that was upgraded to a CCP committee in 2014,” reads Gotion High-Tech’s 2022 ESG Report. “The CCP committee’s subunits are two CCP general branches and 11 party branches, currently with 923 CCP members, among which over 50% hold master’s degrees or higher.”
That revelation came after a Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filing, first reported by Fox News, discovered that Gotion was registered as a Chinese foreign principal.
The law firm Warner Norcross & Judd handled the FARA filing on behalf of Gotion; the filing claims Gotion “is not supervised, directed, controlled or financed by any foreign government or foreign political party.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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