U.S. automaker Ford Motor Company announced Monday that it would pause construction of a 3.5 billion-dollar plant in Michigan involving a Chinese electric vehicle battery company.
They didn’t give a specific reason.
Ford announced in a ceremony earlier this year that it would invest $3.5 billion to build the plant in Marshall, Michigan. As part of the announcement, the U.S. automaker said it had reached an agreement with Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), a Ningde, China-based firm, to manufacture battery cells at the plant using services provided by the Chinese company, Fox Business reported.
Republicans and national security experts have blasted the company for teaming up with a Chinese firm with ties to the Chinese Communist Party on such a major investment.
The plan had been considered for Virginia, though it never reached a final discussion stage. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin opposed the plant over China’s potential influence in the plan and argued that “CATL and the Chinese Communist Party would have full operational control over the technology.”
“We applaud that the construction of this reckless deal has been halted,” former U.S. Ambassadors Peter Hoekstra and Joseph Cella, co-founders of the Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group, said Monday. “From the outset, Ford Motor Company, the State of Michigan, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and all other parties to it have been irresponsible in advancing this deal.”
“There was zero strict scrutiny or due diligence; concerns of our intelligence and national security agencies were ignored and mocked,” they continued. “The halting of the construction is the natural result of the consent of the governed being ruptured by government and business elites. With citizen activists, we are not relenting or letting our guard down. We will keep fighting against the Ford-CATL and Gotion deals until they are no more.”
Unsurprisingly, Gretchen Whitmer was thrilled about the deal. She cared about looking good to constituents with an auto plant in Michigan.
While CATL is not state-owned per se, Chinese investors are tied to the CCP. And everyone knows that all Chinese companies are indebted to the Chinese Communist Party. There is no such thing as freedom in a Maoist country.
In addition, Zeng Yuqun, who founded CATL in 2012 and remains its top executive, was identified last year as a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee. According to a U.S. government report published in 2018, the CPPCC is a “critical coordinating body” that brings together representatives of Chinese interest groups and is led by the CCP’s Politburo Standing Committee, Fox Business reports.
Of course, the Chinese Communists are pushing EVs. It would make us entirely dependent on them for our transportation. They have control over the minerals and the slave labor.
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