U.S. Congressman John Moolenaar, R-Mich.,  is calling on the Department of Homeland Security to blacklist Gotion and CATL over ties to “Chinese Community Party state-sponsored slave labor and the ongoing Uyghur genocide.”

The move follows billions in controversial business incentives Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration granted to the companies to build electric vehicle batteries and components, despite strong objections from locals.

Moolenaar, chair of the U.S. House Select Committee on the CCP, was joined by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., House Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., Government Affairs Subcommittee Chair Carlos Gimenez, and Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., in two letters to DHS this week.

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The letters outline new evidence to support that both Gotion and CATL should be added to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, effectively banning the companies from doing business in the U.S. over ties to slave labor in China.

“The Select Committee has uncovered indisputable evidence that Gotion High Tech and CATL have supply chains that are deeply connected to forced labor and the ongoing genocide of Uyghurs in China. That is why the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force must immediately add Gotion High Tech and CATL to the UFLPA Entity List and block the shipments of these companies from entering the United States.

“The American people expect companies in the U.S. to avoid all involvement with the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign of genocide,” he said.

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The announcement comes just months after Moolenaar exposed Gotion, Inc. co-owner Volkswagen’s ties to the forced labor of religious minorities in China, evidence he said at the time should convince Michigan officials to “end the Gotion project in Michigan immediately.”

The recent letters to DHS show Gotion sources aluminum foil from a CCP state-owned company “known for its prolific use of forced labor, including forced housing of Han men with Uyghur women and families.”

Other evidence involves materials sourced from Xinjiang Joinworld that won an award from the CCP for implementing ethnic policies, and XPCC, “the sanctioned Chinese paramilitary organization that contributes to the Uyghur genocide,” according to a committee news release.

“Gotion’s supply chains are deeply compromised by links to entities whose goods, wares, articles, or merchandise are mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in” the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the June 5 letter to DHS Secretary Robert Silvers read.

A separate letter takes issue with similar connections between forced labor and CATL, which received a $1.75 billion taxpayer-funded business incentive for a joint venture with Ford to build an electric vehicle battery plant in Marshall, where locals are also opposed.

“These are not the first nor the only links between CATL, forced labor, and the genocide of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang that we have identified,” the letter read. “The Select Committee exposed CATL’s previously held 23.6% ownership stake in Xinjiang Zhicun Lithium Industry Co., Ltd. …, a company identified as participating in state labor transfer programs involving forced labor conditions, until divesting it in February 2023.”

In Big Rapids, Gotion inked a $715 million incentive package with the Whitmer administration that includes a 30-year tax break worth $540 million, along with $175 million in grants, to construct a $2.36 billion electric vehicle battery component plant that’s expected to employ 2,350.

While Whitmer touted the deal as a “winning investment” for taxpayers, local officials and Republican lawmakers have opposed the plant, citing a wide variety of issues, from a required 700,000 gallons of water per day, to risks to the Muskegon River watershed, to security risks from the proximity to the cybersecurity center at Ferris State University and the National Guard base in Grayling.

Moolenaar previously said a survey of constituents found more than 90% oppose the deal.

The $1.75 billion Ford-CATL deal in Marshall won the Center for Economic Accountability’s “Worst Economic Development Deal of the Year” award for 2023.

“The award recognizes a state or municipal government subsidy of a private company in the name of ‘job creation’ and economic growth that goes further than any other that year to exemplify the massive wastefulness and ineffectiveness of state government economic development subsidy programs,” according to a news release.

“Michigan’s subsidy of the joint venture between Ford Motor Company and Chinese battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) in rural Marshall, Mich. stood out for a unique combination of factors,” it read. “These included a massive $700,000 per-job price tag for below-average jobs; the use of unrealistic ‘job multipliers’ to artificially justify its massive price tag and an uncertain future where success would depend on labor negotiations, consumer preferences, federal policy and technological advancements all combined to make this deal stand out from a crowded field.”