Gotion High-tech, the Chinese Communist Party-linked battery maker, touted in a December 29 press release that its new California plant is largely automated.

“Gotion High-tech’s Fremont factory is located in Silicon Valley, USA, with a production capacity planned at 1 GWh. It is Gotion’s first battery pack production line in the U.S. market, with an automation rate as high as 85%,” the Heifei, China-based company said.

While celebrating what it called its “Made in USA” initiative, CCP Gotion said, “This is another important step for Gotion High-tech after laying out batteries and materials in Illinois and Michigan in the United States.”

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CCP Gotion has not said what portion of the planned Michigan operation will be automated.

The fight over CCP Gotion in the Big Rapids area came to a crescendo when project supporters on the Green Charter Township board, including Supervisor James Chapman, were overwhelmingly recalled in November and replaced with critics of the 1-sq. mile project.

Opponents largely focused on the company’s ties to the CCP and lack of scrutiny about the project’s potential environmental impact.

Corporate documents obtained exclusively by The Midwesterner last March revealed the Chinese company the Michigan government is funding with $715 million taxpayer dollars is a key vehicle for the work of the Chinese Communist Party.

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In July 2022, CCP Gotion published a 94-page document titled, “Articles of Association,” essentially the equivalent of an American company’s bylaws. The document, found on Gotion’s website, lays out the company’s governance structure and allegiance to the “Constitution of the Communist Party of China.”

It also states, “The Company shall set up a Party organization and carry out Party activities in accordance with the Constitution of the Communist Party of China.”

https://en.gotion.com.cn/uploads/file/20220728/1658971015278139.pdf

Chapter VI of the Articles of Association (page 47) establishes a “Party Committee,” whose sole purpose is to ensure the company is adhering to Communist Party doctrine and furthering its objectives.

“The Party Committee of the Company shall perform its duties in accordance with the Constitution of the Communist Party of China and other Party regulations,” including, “Ensure and supervise the implementation of the Party’s guidelines, principles and policies in the Company, and implement major strategic decisions of the CPC (Communist Party of China) Central Committee and the State Council as well as relevant important work arrangements of the Party organization at the higher level”.

https://en.gotion.com.cn/uploads/file/20220728/1658971015278139.pdf

The Gotion corporate document also states that the company’s Party Committee shall “Strengthen the construction of Party organization and Party members at the grass-roots level of the Company” and oversee growing the “Communist Youth League and other mass work of the Company”.

Company executives have contended the Michigan operation, which will be controlled by “Gotion, Inc.” is separate from Gotion High-tech and will adhere to U.S. laws.

But in an August Foreign Agent Registration Act filing, the company acknowledged Gotion, Inc. is “wholly owned and controlled by by (sic) Hefei Gotion High-Tech Power Energy Co., Ltd.”

https://efile.fara.gov/docs/7261-Exhibit-AB-20230421-1.pdf