A Chinese battery maker leveraging $715 million in taxpayer subsidies to build a plant in Big Rapids doesn’t want its president to testify about the project that has become a flashpoint in the 2024 election.

Gotion sued Green Charter Township in U.S. District Court in March for allegedly breaching a development contract signed by the previous township board, which was recalled from office amid fierce public opposition to the company’s plans to construct the multi-billion dollar battery component plant to feed the electric vehicle industry.

As part of the case, Gotion requested private communications between local residents opposed to the project and township officials, but when GCT sought to depose Gotion President Chen Li, the company filed a “motion for protective order prohibiting the deposition.”

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“Like many high-level officials of large companies, Chen Li, President of Gotion, Inc. (‘Gotion’), has had limited personal involvement in Gotion’s ongoing efforts to establish a battery component manufacturing plant and industrial park in Mecosta County,” the motion read. “As it relates to the formation of the Development Agreement, which is the subject of this dispute, Li’s sole involvement was signing the Development Agreement after it was negotiated by other Gotion employees who are responsible for the day-to-day operations.”

“It is clear that the Township’s true aim in deposing Li is to exploit his Chinese nationality for purposes unrelated to the legal substance of this litigation: the Township’s breach of the development agreement,” Gotion attorneys wrote to U.S. District Judge Jane Beckering.

The motion seeks a protective order blocking the township from deposing Li, a Chinese national who lives in California, because it’s “unduly burdensome.”

Township attorneys responded in a Monday court filing requesting oral arguments to compel the deposition that evidence suggests Li “will have unique personal knowledge of the facts,” Reuters reports.

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Beckering in May granted Gotion’s motion for a preliminary injunction to force the township to comply with the development agreement while the case plays out in court. GCT last week filed a notice to request the U.S. Court of Appeals reconsider that decision.

The Gotion plant has drawn a variety of concerns from local residents and Republicans, from the company’s close ties to the Chinese Communist Party, to nondisclosure agreements that shield the public from details of the agreement, to potential environmental impacts, to slave labor in the supply chain.

Former President Donald Trump last month wrote in a post to Truth Social that “the Gotion plant would be very bad for the State and our Country.

“It would put Michiganders under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing,” the post read. “I AM 100% OPPOSED!”

The ordeal is playing into multiple key U.S. House and Senate races in Michigan, including Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s campaign to replace retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow. Slotkin, D-Holly, was among lawmakers who signed nondisclosure agreements to bring Gotion to Michigan, and her challenger, former Congressman Mike Rogers, strongly opposes the deal he contends comes with serious risks to national security, the economy, and the environment.

Rogers, a former House Intelligence Committee chairman, told The Midwesterner he’s concerned because “we’re inviting into our country a company that has a self-identified association with the Communist Party of China.”

Like Slotkin, Curtis Hertel, former legislative director for Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also signed an NDA, and he’s now running for Slotkin’s seat in the House against former Republican state Sen. Tom Barrett.

“We had foreign agents provide financial support to Elissa Slotkin and Curtis Hertel,” Rogers said Monday at a press conference with Barrett. “They signed nondisclosure agreements to … not have to disclose their conversations about their dealings to give cash and prizes to a company that is now tied to the Communist Party of China.”

The strong public opposition to Gotion in Michigan has prompted Slotkin to begin to cast herself as more critical of Chinese companies doing business in the U.S., telling a reporter with MIRS there should have been a “proper national security vetting” before Michigan inked its incentive deal, The Detroit News reports.

She also voted on Monday along with all other members of the U.S. House of Representatives to approve HR 8631, known as the “Decoupling from Foreign Adversarial Battery Dependence Act,” which specifically names Gotion in prohibiting the Department of Homeland Security from procuring certain foreign-made batteries.

The move is the latest blow to the company, which is also erecting a battery component facility in Illinois with $536 million in state tax dollars, Wirepoints reports.

Gotion is also set to take in $7.5 billion in federal tax credits through the Inflation Reduction Act, which narrowly passed Congress in 2022 with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the deciding vote in the Senate.