Michigan taxpayers save hundreds of millions. Legislature cancels subsidies for Chinese military battery factory.

Photo above – Grand Rapids Michigan. Where a battery factory built by a Chinese Communist Party owned weapons supplier will no longer be built.

I would claim that Michigan cancelling subsides giving China hundreds of millions for a battery factory in Grand Rapids is a win for Governor Whitmer. I would have said this, except that Whitmer is the person who approved the deal in the first place, and already paid out tens of millions.

Not a single brick has been laid at the proposed site despite the payouts.

There are conflicting explanations as to why the deal won’t go forward. Either it’s China’s attempt to embarrass and extort the Trump administration, which depends on autoworkers’ votes. Or it’s the factory ownership by “Gotion” – the Chinese company in question – by the Chinese Communist party, and Gotion's historical role in Chinese weapons manufacturing. Which story you believe is up to you.

There’s a simpler explanation, but it won’t be any more satisfying. EV car sales are tanking in the USA. Almost nobody wants ginormous electric pickup trucks, cybertrucks, or $80,000 Camry-sized battery powered sedans that go zero to sixty in 3 seconds. Additionally, the Gotion factory was slated to produce the discredited “gen one” lithium-ion batteries. The kind that catch fire if you look at them cross-eyed, or park them within sniffing distance of the ocean. Solid state batteries, despite being hyped 24/7, still are nowhere near ready.

I’m sorry the taxpayers of Michigan already lost millions and millions. I’m relieved they’re not going to lose hundreds of millions more. It was completely insane for Whitmer to approve this deal just weeks after China’s fake “weather balloon” drifted across America, collecting military data, until it was popped by a shot from an F22 jet fighter.

Signing a battery deal with the Chinese Communist Party after a spying incident like that would be akin to signing a subsidized offshore drilling lease with Vlad Putin the month after he invaded Ukraine, wouldn’t it?

I’m just sayin’ . . .



Owners of in-progress China-tied battery plant in Michigan default on state deal, ending project