by WorldTribune Staff, October 24, 2025 Real World News
In a hard-fought win for the people of Green Charter Township and a major loss for Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Gotion, a Chinese company with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), apparently will not build an electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in northern Michigan.
Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) officials on Thursday notified state lawmakers that Gotion is in breach of its economic development contract, reports say.
The MEDC’s Michigan Strategic Fund last month notified Gotion it was in violation of its grant agreement due to a “cessation of eligible activities” for at least 120 days, which is considered “abandonment” according to the terms, The Detroit News reported.
The notice also alleged Gotion’s involvement in two lawsuits violates a provision of the contract that prohibits litigation that “would reasonably be expected to have a material adverse effect on the project or the grantees performance of its obligations under the agreement.”
The MEDC is now working to recoup $23.6 million it spent on land for the planned Gotion factory. The rest of Gotion’s funding, it said, remains unused.
Rich Studley, former CEO of the Michigan Chamber, told Bridge Michigan he has “zero confidence” the state will recover what it spent on the land, “or that they won’t do it again.”
“I’m not happy that we missed an opportunity to encourage job creation and economic growth in the Big Rapids area,” he said. “But, it is encouraging to see the (state) and Gotion held accountable.”
The project was initially approved by Green Charter Township in 2023. Soon after that approval, all township trustees were recalled or resigned amid widespread public opposition to the development.
Gotion responded by suing the township when the new trustees reversed course on support for the project, which was initially kept secret from taxpayers.
Rep. John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on the CCP, has repeatedly pointed to Gotion’s status as the “wholly-owned and controlled” subsidiary of Gotion High-Tech, a Chinese company that’s subsidized by the Chinese government, in calling on Michigan officials to cancel its development agreement.
Employees at Gotion High-Tech are required to swear an allegiance to the CCP, and members of Gotion’s North American leadership team attend CCP board meetings, he said.
“Despite Gotion’s rosy promises and influence campaign on local leaders, the residents of Green Charter Township repeatedly showed us they do not support a company beholden to the Chinese Communist Party setting up shop in their town,” Moolenaar said in a statement Thursday. “Two years ago, this community came together and recalled the officials who welcomed Gotion and the CCP to town. Instead of listening to the will of the people, the company decided to fight them; suing the resilient small town in a vain attempt to force its way in, and ridiculing those who did not support its project.
“While fighting the rural community, the company was derelict in its responsibilities to the State. Now that its contract with the State of Michigan and MEDC is set to be terminated, the people of Green Charter Township can finally move on from Gotion’s lies and broken promises.”
Former U.S. Ambassador and Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group Director Joseph Cella also sided with the Green Township opponents of the CCP-affiliated Gotion project.
“What did Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the MEDC expect when they collaborated in a ‘deal’ with a company that is deeply tied to the Chinese Communist Party, who is engaged in unrestricted warfare against the United States of America?” Cella said in a statement. “This was a textbook subnational incursion and influence operation. You don’t subsidize these things, you stop them.”
Gotion attorney Mark Heusel said the company was “shocked” by the MEDC’s notice, according to the Big Rapids Pioneer.
“It is even more surprising that the state of Michigan suggests that Gotion has ‘abandoned’ the Project considering the immense challenges that Gotion has experienced in Michigan,” Heusel said. “These well-documented challenges, false accusations, and politically motivated attacks were not through any actions or inactions by Gotion, but solely due to racist and ethnically charged stereotypes that led Green Charter Township to breach the parties’ Development Agreement.”
“We are disappointed that the State and the MSF have initiated such action in light of these facts and, notwithstanding Gotion’s inability to proceed with this Project due to Green Charter Township’s brazen and intentional breach of the Development Agreement, Gotion remains committed to its obligations in Michigan,” Heusel said.
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