Plans for a sprawling factory in rural Michigan making batteries for electric cars offer an economic lifeline, but for some residents there is a big p

The China-linked EV battery mega factory dividing a US township

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2024-05-15 07:30:03

Plans for a sprawling factory in rural Michigan making batteries for electric cars offer an economic lifeline, but for some residents there is a big problem: the parent company is in China

S et among green rolling hills and tall pines, Lori Brock’s storybook farm encapsulates northern Michigan. A five-day-old mare bucks around a pen, while small black pigs roam through a barn and donkeys graze in fields bordered by white fences.

It is a bucolic way of life in Green Township, but one that Brock and many of her neighbours believe could be threatened by an unlikely adversary – China’s Communist party.

Just south of her property, a company called Gotion is moving forward with a huge $2.4bn, 2m sq ft (186,000 sq metre) plant that would produce lithium batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). It is a US-based firm but its parent company is Chinese.

Brock and her neighbours say they are in a fight to preserve Green Township’s rural character and stave off the “national security risk” of a Chinese company. They insist they are on the brink of derailing the project.