Michigan U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Caledonia, responded Friday to new revelations that Gotion Inc. has more than a fleeting familiarity with the Chinese Communist Party.

Revelations were reported in Friday’s Daily Caller that Gotion Inc. Director and Chief Technology Officer Steven Cai attended at least two CCP meetings. The article counters claims made by Gotion Inc. Vice President Chuck Thelen less than a year ago that Gotion maintained no ties with the CCP.

Moolenaar is the incoming chairman of the House Select Committee on China.

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“Gotion officials in Michigan continue to mislead residents about the company’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Gotion Inc. officials are actively involved in the CCP and its business partner was recently caught using slave labor in the CCP’s genocide of religious people. Gotion’s parent company has even worked with officials from Iran, an avowed enemy of the United States. Gotion is the wrong business partner for Michigan,” Moolenaar said.

In a Green Charter Township meeting last April, Thelen said residents were being “force-fed a big fear sandwich” over Gotion’s CCP connections, which include the company’s bylaws requiring allegiance to the CCP. Gotion plans to build a controversial $2.4 billion electric-vehicle battery plant in Green Charter Township in Mecosta County after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration and Democrats in the Legislature gave it $715 million in taxpayer money and tax incentives.

“Has the Communist Party penetrated this company? No,” Thelen said in April 2023. More recently, Thelen told Politico that “the Chinese Communist Party has no presence in the North American company.”

Residents in Mecosta County, Big Rapids, and Green Township have been battling each other and Gotion for the past year. The previous Township board celebrated the proposed Gotion plant, but the entire seven-member board was replaced by Gotion opponents last November.

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The Daily Caller article reveals Cai was present for at least two meetings held by Gotion High-Tech’s internal CCP committee in 2022. The proof was found on the website for Gotion’s Chinese parent company, Gotion High-Tech. The purpose of the meetings Cai attended was to study and implement CCP principles at Gotion High-Tech.

“If they’re attending Party committee meetings, they are, in all likelihood, a Party member,” John Dotson, deputy director of Global Taiwan Institute, told the Daily Caller. “If you’re attending the meetings, it’s because you’re supposed to be there.”

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Dotson continued: “At any mid-size to larger enterprise, expect that the senior management are dual-hatted as CCP committee members,” Dotson said. “In cases where there’s a foreign subsidiary of a major Chinese company, the same basic rules apply.”