Gotion High-Tech, the Chinese company hiding behind an “American” veneer as it looks to build a plant in mid-Michigan, produced a video last week touting its 2022 achievements.

The battery maker, which its American vice president, Chuck Thelen, insists will not have an influence from the Chinese Communist Party, featured Chinese monetary symbols and trucks with Chinese letter in the video.

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Watch:

2022 Highlights of Gotion pic.twitter.com/yzs6Nc4bBn

— Gotion Inc. (@Gotion48660) May 4, 2023

Thelen, who answers to Gotion CEO Chen Li, as recently as Tuesday told Green Charter Township residents that the Chinese Communist Party would not be involved.

Green Twp residents didn’t appreciate being lectured by a rep of CCP Gotion about America’s form of government and that “change can be scary.”

The Chinese battery plant is dividing the community as township leaders try to push it through. pic.twitter.com/I3kRfTl0Nd

— The Midwesterner (@Th_Midwesterner) May 10, 2023

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“As far as the articles of incorporation, there are not articles that refer to CCP in the state of Michigan, in the state of Ohio, in the state of California, anywhere in the United States,” he said.

Residents are concerned that Gotion High-Tech, the Chinese company looking to build the plant in Green Charter Township, does, in fact, require CCP involvement.

In July 2022, CCP Gotion published a 94-page document titled, “Articles of Association,” essentially the equivalent of an American company’s bylaws. The document, found on CCP 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 CCP 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”.

Thelen and CCP Gotion’s American agents, such as Green Charter Township Supervisor Jim Chapman, have attempted to dismiss concerns as conspiracy theories.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) and legislative Democrats have given CCP Gotion $715 million in taxpayer cash and tax incentives to build a battery components plant in the state.