After a three-year battle, the residents of Green Charter Township, Michigan, can finally rest easy knowing a Chinese Communist Party-linked battery plant won’t be forced down their throats.
You see, in 2022, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) announced a plan to give $715 million in taxpayer cash and tax incentives to lure Gotion, a Chinese battery maker, to rural central Michigan. She did it in the midst of a reelection campaign so she could fire off a press release claiming credit for 2,600 “good-paying jobs.”
She didn’t mind the fact that this proposed one-square-mile plant would be located less than 100 miles from an Army and National Guard training facility called Camp Grayling. The real irony is that the U.S. military has been training the Taiwanese military at Camp Graying for years to repel a Chinese invasion. Our governor was going to pay the CCP to operate a plant in the middle of the state. Genius!
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Local residents rose up. Yes, of course, because they objected to the possibility of Chinese spies roaming around their community. But also because they resented the way in which the project was unveiled. Elected officials signed nondisclosure agreements with economic development agencies and then said they were legally bound from sharing details with the residents footing the bill.
The more questions citizens had, the more obstinate company, township, and state officials became. Green Charter Township is made up of normal people: farmers, small business owners, and the like. James Chapman, the chief project proponent and former township supervisor, quickly lost his patience in meetings and yelled at the rubes who had the temerity to attend and voice their opinions. They would yell right back. The massive project, shrouded in arrogant secrecy, bitterly divided the small community.
It reached a boiling point when township officials who were supporting the project either resigned or were overwhelmingly recalled. A new board was elected, and they went about doing the due diligence that taxpayers expect elected officials to pursue for such an expensive and disruptive project.
The CCP-linked company sued the new board, driving up massive legal bills for the tiny community. The company didn’t want to wait for environmental approvals, tearing down trees and homes. The community continued fighting, even employing President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. Trump publicly opposed the project. Vance held a campaign rally across the street.
When they took office in January, they changed former President Joe Biden’s scam electric vehicle mandates, and the whole racket collapsed. It was the beginning of the end for the Gotion project.
Last week, the state of Michigan announced it was withdrawing the promise of $175 million in taxpayer cash, although $50 million had already been delivered. It’s unclear whether taxpayers will receive an accounting of where that money went.
The whole fiasco should be a lesson to the elites who think they know what’s best for us and want to throw our hard-earned money around to lure corporations that are promising jobs.
There’s at least one solution: Ban elected officials from signing nondisclosure agreements. Trying to force projects to happen with secrecy and condescension leads to anger, frustration, resentment, and bitterness–all things that divide a community.
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It’s our money, we ought to be able to see our “investment.” And there should be extra transparency into companies that are taking our money. If companies don’t want taxpayers to know what’s going on, don’t take our money.
Congratulations to the residents of Green Charter Township. You proved the little guy can still win against the elites.
Tudor Dixon is a former Republican gubernatorial nominee, an executive in Michigan’s steel industry, a breast cancer survivor, and a working mother of four girls. She is currently the host of The Tudor Dixon Podcast.