(The Center Square) – Gotion’s $2.4 billion electric-vehicle manufacturing campus has narrowed its focus in Mecosta County.
On Tuesday, the Michigan Strategic Fund approved incentive amendments to Gotion’s initial plans. Changes include limiting the boundary of the project to Green Township, and extending the completion of the Gotion facility 12 months to December 2031.
Plans for Big Rapids Township, for now, are on hold.
The Gotion plant is anticipated to garner $1.4 billion in taxpayer incentives. The proposed facility has drawn public opposition from Mecosta County residents. Some residents expressed environmental concerns whereas others said they oppose the company’s connection to China.
Gotion Inc. is a North American company in California that is a subsidiary of Gotion High-Tech in Shanghai.
The China concerns were echoed last week by U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., in questions to U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Ely Ratner during a House of Representatives committee meeting.
“In general, do you think it makes sense for Michigan to welcome Taiwan’s military for training in our state, and then turn around and invite CCP-affiliated companies to build manufacturing facilities in our state?” said Moolenaar, who has been outspoken in his opposition to locating the Gotion plant in Michigan.
CCP is an acronym for Chinese Communist Party.
Ratner and Moolenaar were in agreement that national security in close proximity to Camp Grayling, home to the Michigan National Guard, is a priority when it comes to companies with international ties.
Taiwan is not a country; rather, it is an island off the coast of China previously known as Formosa before the end of the civil war in 1949, the place where nationalists were driven by communists. It is self-governed by an elected government but also claimed by the People’s Republic of China, which has viewed it as sovereign territory since a 1949 split amid civil war.
