MICHIGAN: A small town in America’s Midwest has become a major battleground in the competition between the world’s two largest economies.lccplus
The community of Green Charter Township, located in the swing state of Michigan, is deeply divided over a proposal to build an electric vehicle (EV) battery plant.
While the factory promises to bring in thousands of jobs, those who oppose it have raised several concerns – the biggest being the company behind it has strong links to China.
As the US presidential campaign enters its final month, voters now face the crucial question of whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump is best equipped to navigate the risks and rewards of such foreign investment at their doorstep.
TENSIONS AT BOILING POINTGreen Charter Township, just outside the city of Big Rapids, has a population of just over 3,000 residents.
While life is usually peaceful there, tensions recently reached boiling point.
The US$2.4 billion EV battery plant set to be built there has made the rural community the focus of international headlines.
Gotion – a US-based subsidiary of a Chinese company – is behind the factory, which will span 186,000sqm and produce lithium battery components for EVs.
It will be situated just south of a farm owned by Lori Brock, who told CNA about her troubled feelings over the plant and how she and her friends are fighting to derail the project.
“I think the Americans should be putting and investing into American companies, not Chinese companies,” she said.
These sentiments come as several US states have banned Chinese companies and citizens from purchasing their land.
Gotion, which reportedly received US$800 million in subsidies from Michigan, now owns some of the land on which the EV plant is set to be built.
Such foreign investment in the US has been spurred by President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act that allocated billions of dollars in green energy subsidies.lccplus
An artist's impression of an electric vehicle battery plant, set to be built in Green Charter Township, Michigan, US. (Photo: The Right Place)