Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was in Washington, DC on Wednesday to lecture the country about job creation, insisting it will require Americans to “work with our friends and compete against our adversaries.”

The lengthy speech centered largely on what she framed as shared goals with President Donald Trump on fair trade and the need “to make more stuff in America – more cars and chips, more steel and ships.”

But it was Whitmer’s vision for accomplishing those goals that seemingly conflicts with her own approach in the Great Lakes State, where the potential 2028 presidential contender has presided over the fastest growing unemployment rate in the country.

In terms of commercial and military aviation, Whitmer argued “China gets it,” with companies including Commercial Aircraft Corporation now challenging Boeing and Airbus “as a serious competitor.”

“COMAC, like so many Chinese companies, is funded directly by the Chinese government,” Whitmer said. “This allows them to undercut others on price while plowing billions into R&D.

“We see the same story playing out in the car market,” she continued. “Over the past decade, Chinese automakers, directly funded by the Chinese government, have muscled their way into countries around the world. They sell at a loss, eat market share, and drive out local competition. In Southeast Asia, Japanese giants like Honda, Toyota, and Nissan are selling fewer cars. In Europe, Volkswagen was forced to close a factory for the first time in its century-long history because of Chinese competition.”

Whitmer’s wisdom on competing with China comes as companies tied to the Chinese government are working to set up shop in Michigan, and they didn’t have to “muscle their way” in.

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Instead, Whitmer welcomed Gotion High-Tech Chairman and Chinese Communist Party member Zhen Li to the governor’s summer residence on Mackinac Island in 2023 to celebrate a deal secretly negotiated by her administration to steer $715 million in taxpayer subsidies to U.S. subsidiary Gotion for an electric vehicle battery component plant in Mecosta County.

Whitmer touted the Gotion deal, inked when Democrats held a government trifecta in 2022, as the “biggest ever economic development project in Northern Michigan” with a promise of “2,350 good-paying jobs.”

It’s a similar situation with the CCP-linked Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. and its joint venture with Ford to build an EV battery plant in Marshall, Michigan. That project initially came with $825 million in tax credits negotiated with non-disclosure agreements, though the figure was later reduced to about $225 million when Ford scaled back plans amid less-than-stellar EV sales.

Republican U.S. Congressman John Moolenaar, of Midland, has repeatedly called on Whitmer to nix those deals, citing evidence from the House Select Committee on the CCP he chairs that exposed its ties to the CCP and other concerning issues.

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“Since the company announced its project in 2022, it has been discovered an executive at the company attends meetings of the parent company’s internal CCP committee,” according to Moolenaar. “Last year, an investigation conducted by the Select Committee on the CCP … found that Gotion’s supply chain is reliant on forced labor that is a part of the CCP’s ongoing genocide of Uyghur Muslims, a religious minority in China.”

Moolenaar also points to federal filings that admit Gotion is “wholly owned and controlled” by parent company Gotion High-Tech, and receives subsidies from the Chinese government.

He notes Gotion High-Tech employes hundreds of CCP members and hosts field trips for those employees to pledge their lives to the CCP.

While the Gotion deal was initially approved by a Green Charter Township board in August 2023, voters recalled all members of the board over the support, installing new board members that immediately moved to kill the agreement.

The change prompted Gotion to file a lawsuit against the township for breach of the development agreement, and Judge Jane M. Beckering issued a preliminary injunction in May 2024 ordering the township to comply.

In January, a newly elected Mecosta County board of commissioners also pulled support for Gotion, citing “92% of … Mecosta County residents” who oppose the plant and “new information and developments” regarding Gotion’s direct ties to the CCP.

While Gotion’s lawsuit continues through the courts three years after Whitmer gave the green light, recent developments suggest it may be cutting its losses.

In late March, Gotion Vice President of North America Manufacturing Chuck Thelen confirmed the company halted its environmental studies and permitting process through the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy as the legal battle drags into year two.

“The EGLE permitting application is now on hold as we move through the legal process,” Thelen told the Big Rapids Pioneer.

“The company has continuously misled the public about its close ties to the CCP and refused to heed election results, instead deciding to sue a small town that doesn’t want it,” Moolenaar said in a recent statement. “Gotion’s announcement it is pausing its application process is good news, however, it should listen to the people of Mecosta County and end its plans in Michigan once and for all.”

Despite Whitmer’s tough talk in DC on Wednesday, she’s been silent on Gotion in Michigan.

Republicans in Michigan and DC, meanwhile, are taking action to curb China’s influence. Moolenaar, along with Republicans in both chambers of Congress, are backing legislation to ban Chinese companies from leveraging a loophole in the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act to secure tax credits.

In Michigan, House Republicans in March introduced a 10-bill package to curb foreign influence from the CCP and other countries of concern that was inspired in part by Whitmer’s Gotion deal.

“There is no longer a welcome mat in Michigan for entities of foreign concern,” said state Rep. William Bruck, R-Erie, chair of a newly formed House Oversight Subcommittee on Homeland Security and Foreign Influence. “We’re taking that welcome mat and we’re throwing it in the trash.”