Mecosta County swore in new commissioners on Thursday, and they swiftly rescinded support for a planned Gotion electric vehicle battery component plant in Green Charter Township.

Within minutes of taking office, the new board voted 5-2 to rescind Resolution 2023-04, which stated the prior commission’s support for Gotion, citing “new information and developments … concerning the project and its ownership structure with direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party CCP and broader issues of foreign investment.”

“When 92% of the Mecosta County residents opposed the Chinese battery plant in our community, the board of commissioners should have listened,” newly elected board Chairman Chris Zimmerman said. “When our congressman says there are security concerns with China in our community, the board of commissioners should have reversed their approval of the project.”

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

Zimmerman noted all four new commissioners – himself, Jeff Jackson, Greg Adams, and Gary Lambrix – won their seats in November largely on opposition to Gotion.

“All four of us opposed Gotion and we hope the passage of this resolution will help heal the divide in our community. Moreover, as long as the four of us are on the commission, we will no longer ignore the will of the people,” he said to applause.

What the decision to rescind support for the Gotion project means for its future is unclear, as plans for the facility remain mired in a legal battle with Green Charter Township and strong opposition from Republicans and the local community.

Democrats including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer have ignored repeated calls from Congressman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and national security experts to nix state incentives for the facility, despite evidence Gotion allegedly bribed township officials to seal the deal.

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

Those township officials were recalled from office after approval of the Gotion project, which landed $715 million in taxpayer-funded business incentives through secret negotiations with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration and select lawmakers.

President-elect Donald Trump made it clear he’s “100% OPPOSED” to the Gotion facility.

“The Gotion plant would be very bad for the State and our Country,” Trump posted to Truth Social in August. “It would put Michiganders under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing.”

Democrats in control of the Michigan legislature last year rejected attempts by Republicans to block state subsidies for companies tied to America’s adversaries.

A similar proposal to ban Gotion and other CCP-affiliated companies from securing federal tax credits to produce EV battery components was introduced by Republican U.S. senators in December. That bill, sponsored by Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Rick Scott, R-Fla., mirrors legislation introduced the month prior by Moolenaar and Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, in the lower chamber.

“Under no circumstance should the CCP be allowed to benefit from the tax dollars of hardworking American families,” Moolenaar said. “Unfortunately, the Biden administration’s 45X rule has left the door open for CCP-affiliated companies, like Gotion, to reap billions in taxpayer funding.”

An October report on the CCP’s infiltration and influence operations cites Gotion 22 times. The report examined 25 federal sectors through multiple hearings and dozens of briefings, concluding “most agencies’ solutions and policies either ignore, placate, or only weakly address the CCP’s efforts to influence and infiltrate the United States.

“The CCP is successfully infiltrating and influencing communities and critical sectors across this nation and the Biden-Harris Administration is asleep at the wheel,” committee Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability that produced the report, said in a statement. The new report “details how federal agencies have failed to understand, acknowledge or develop a plan to combat CCP political warfare and Americans are left to fend for themselves.”

In Mecosta County, several local residents heaped praise on the new commissioners for waking up to that reality, and taking a big step toward protecting their own following years of inaction from the prior board.

“I’ve come to these meetings over and over and we’ve been shot down, no one would listen to a word we’re saying, we got smirked at by a few of the members who are still here,” one woman told the board on Thursday. “I am just so glad that finally people are listening to us.”

“Thank you guys so much for finally listening to the people,” another man said. “For a couple of years, this previous board would not even acknowledge us, wouldn’t listen to us, they voted 7-0 for Gotion.”

Watch the full meeting: