One rally criticizes, another praises Gotion plant near Big Rapids

GREEN CHARTER TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Dueling rallies were held Wednesday over the proposed Gotion electric vehicle battery component plant near Big Rapids.

A crowd gathered at Majestic Friesians Farm in Green Charter Township to voice their opposition to Gotion coming to the area.

“It’s a fight that we didn’t want, but we’re not going to give up and we’re not going to back down,” farm owner Lori Brock said.

Gotion, a China-based company, is planning to build a $2 billion electric vehicle battery component plant in Green Charter Township. There is local resistance, with some residents saying they are worried that the company has ties to the Chinese Communist Party. That led to voters recalling five Green Township board members last year and replacing them with people who oppose the plant.

“They (Gotion) have nowhere to go. We have a zoning board in place now. So they think they’re going to do something but they can’t. We have them completely boxed in,” Brock said.

Among those who spoke to the anti-Gotion crowd were U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Caledonia; Michigan GOP Chair Pete Hoekstra and Republican U.S. Senate nominee Mike Rogers.

“That’s Washington D.C., that’s Lansing, that’s Democrats saying we’re going to force this down your throat, we’re going to force you to buy this car, we’re going to force the companies to build this car, and we’re going to force this community take a battery factory that nobody in that chain wants,” Rogers said.

A federal judge recently upheld a preliminary injunction , ordering the township to comply with a previously approved development agreement while a lawsuit Gotion filed against the township moves forward in court.

Still, Rogers said there are ways to block the plant.

“There are things we can do at the federal level to make it very difficult for them to build the plant. They’ve got to get special visas,” he said.

Across the street from Rogers’ rally was a very different tone. Another crowd of community members gathered in support of the Gotion project, which is expected to create 2,350 jobs by the end of 2033.

“We’re celebrating an opportunity like never been up in this area before. How do you bring economic independence to this area? You create jobs and that’s what we’re doing,” Chuck Thelen, vice president of North American Manufacturing for Gotion Inc., said. “It brings about $106 million payroll to this area that’s never been here.”

Thelen added that the project is moving along.

“We’ve got a lot of the work already done to start the design phase. That’ll take us about three months. And we get to a point that we start submitting permits and then we’re at the mercy of the permitting agencies,” Thelen said.

Thelen hopes to see construction by spring of next year but admits Gotion may be met by additional lawsuits.

He said the company has no plot to spread communism , also pointing out there are hundreds of Chinese-owned companies in Michigan.

“It’s silly that I even have to say that, but we don’t talk about politics in this company ever,” Thelen said.

During the anti-Gotion rally, speakers made claims that U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, the Democrat running against Rogers for Senate, signed a nondisclosure agreement connected to the Gotion project.

A spokesperson for Slotkin denied those claims in a statement to News 8:

“This is a completely false attack from national Republicans. As a national security expert, Rep. Slotkin has dedicated her career to protecting the U.S. from foreign threats and in Congress, she has been leading the charge to combat Chinese influence in critical supply chains and the auto industry. Rep. Slotkin never signed any agreement related to the Gotion project or the Chinese government. This is a desperate attempt to change the conversation from Mike Rogers’ history of profiting from corporations with ties to China.”

Spokesperson for Rep. Slotkin

Despite his criticism of Chinese companies and the Gotion plant project, Rogers and his wife have made substantial money from ventures involving Chinese firms, The Detroit News reports . After serving in Congress, Rogers worked for AT&T and Nokia, which had ties with Chinese companies. His wife also serves on the board of a company that partners with a Chinese firm.

At a press conference in Grand Rapids Wednesday morning, veterans and union leaders from our state called out Rogers, arguing that his financial connections to China contradict his military oath to the Constitution and his stances against China.

“It’s conflicting, right? It’s both sides of the quarter. And I think it directly speaks to his willingness to answer whatever call has the most dollar signs in it,” Tom Sidebotham, a U.S. Army veteran and member of Teamsters Local 406, said.

“For someone like Mike who did serve to have a relationship with companies who are developing technology that could be used against our men and women on the battlefield, it just doesn’t make sense to me,” agreed Tim Russ, who served in the National Guard and is a member of the Michigan Education Association.

Contacted by The Detroit News, Rogers defended his stance, claiming his actions have consistently been against Chinese companies.

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