The legal case filed against Green Charter Township by Gotion Inc. took another twist this week when GCT’s attorneys denied all of the electric vehicle battery manufacturer’s discovery requests.
Those requests included documents between the township and private citizens organized in opposition to the Gotion plant, Christopher Long and Lori Brock. Specifically, the discovery documents demand GCT, “Produce all communications and documents between the Township and Christopher Long relating to or concerning Gotion, the Project, and/or the Development Agreement,” and “Produce all communications and documents between the Township and Lori Brock relating to or concerning Gotion, the Project, and/or the Development Agreement.” Private citizens Thomas Gray and Tonya Wright were also named specifically in Gotion’s discovery request document.
Brock most recently held two events on her horse farm located in GCT. The first featured Republican U.S. Senate candidate and former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, and former U.S. Rep. and Ambassador Pete Hoekstra. The following week, she hosted U.S. Senator and current Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance. All of the Republican politicians listed are actively seeking to scuttle the Gotion plant, are joined in their efforts by former President Donald Trump.
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“The Chinese Communist Party’s attempt to single out and demand the communications between private American citizens who oppose the Gotion battery project and our elected officials should cause every American to take pause,” Long said in a statement issued Friday morning.
“It’s bad enough that the CCP is bullying an American Township that does not want them, but now they’re bullying individual citizens in that Township,” Long continued. “Will I and the other citizens named face retaliation from the CCP for exercising our first amendment rights to speak up against the project? These demands are clearly beyond the scope of the original lawsuit. No American should EVER have their communications with their elected officials scrutinized by the CCP, or their surrogates like Gotion.”
In response to Gotion’s request for documents pertaining to Long and his fellow opponents to the proposed manufacturing facility, GCT’s attorneys wrote: “[I]t can only be intended to cause Green Charter Township annoyance or undue burden and expense. Green Charter Township further objects to this Request to the extent it utilizes Plaintiff’s definition of “Township,” which is overly broad and can be construed to encompass, in this context, private conversations between individuals in their personal capacities and/or related to personal matters.”
Gotion filed a breach of contract lawsuit against GCT last March in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan Southern Division. Judge Jane M. Beckering is presiding over the case.
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“This case presents a simple breach of contract claim arising from the unlawful actions of the new members of the Green Charter Township Board, the majority of whom are motivated by admitted anti-Gotion animus,” CCP Gotion’s brief in support for a preliminary injunction begins.
“The Township’s continued breaches of its contractual obligations to CCP Gotion and will cause CCP Gotion imminent and irreparable harm,” the brief continues.
“Whereas the new Board immediately withdrew the Township’s welcome mat for the manufacturer, including putting in place a Township Planning Commission that will assume its duties next month withdrawing the previous Board’s approval to connect the Gotion plant to the City of Big Rapids’ water system,” the suit claims, adding, “Gotion is left with no choice but to seek this Court’s intervention” because the Township’s approval is mandatory for Gotion to proceed with its plant.
An August 2023 FARA filing, which is required for companies attempting to influence politicians and regulators on behalf of a foreign government, read in part, “Gotion, Inc. is wholly owned and controlled by by (sic) Hefei Gotion High-Tech Power Energy Co., Ltd.”
According to the U.S. Justice Department, “FARA requires certain agents of foreign principals who are engaged in political activities or other activities specified under the statute to make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal, as well as activities, receipts and disbursements in support of those activities.”
As previously exclusively reported by The Midwesterner, Gotion High-Tech’s bylaws require the company to be affiliated with the CCP.
In July 2022, 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.”
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”.
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”.
Kyle Olson contributed to this report.