The growing number of green energy initiatives across the country involving Chinese companies has raised concerns among two former U.S. ambassadors, Fox News reported on Monday, despite the fact that the Biden administration has claimed to be moving away from partnering with Beijing.
Peter Hoekstra and Joseph Cella, both former U.S. ambassadors, have expressed concerns that Chinese companies, which are bound by stringent Chinese laws, are actively capitalizing on America’s green energy objectives. They have warned that these companies are utilizing American tax incentives to construct facilities and initiatives in the United States, which helps to enhance Chinese industry while also ensuring that the U.S. remains reliant on technology from China, the outlet reported.
“It’d be very ironic if we moved towards electric vehicles to the numbers that the Biden administration is talking about, and the key component comes from China,” Hoekstra, who served as U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands from 2018 until 2021, told the outlet exclusively. “That is a terrible, terrible place to be.”
“Right now, electric vehicle sales are about 3 to 5 percent of new automobile sales,” he continued. “Now is the time for the U.S. to establish its own capabilities rather than increasing reliance on an unreliable and a threatening adversary.”
Hoekstra said that China’s significant presence throughout the green energy supply chain, which includes developing crucial mineral mines in Africa and producing battery components, indicates a deliberate strategy that is “very perilous not only for our national security but our economic security and prosperity as well.”
Earlier this year, Hoekstra, who previously chaired the House Intelligence Committee, founded the Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group, which hones in on evaluating Chinese economic investments across the United States, with a specific emphasis on Michigan. Last month, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) announced that her administration had succeeded in attracting $16.6 billion worth of electric vehicle (EV) and battery initiatives to the state.
Cella — who served as the U.S. ambassador to Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tuvalu, and Tonga from 2019 until 2021 — signed onto Hoekstra’s group as a director.
Hoekstra and Cella have highlighted two specific electric vehicle (EV) battery plant proposals in Michigan that are a cause for concern. One project is planned for Big Rapids, Mich., and involves Gotion High-Tech, a company based in Hefei, China. The other project is proposed for the city of Marshall and involves Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), a company based in Ningde, China.
“Subnational incursions are afoot,” Cella told Fox News Digital. “China is on the hunt. The Chinese Communist Party is on the hunt. They are looking for these open doors to kick in, in states. And they have carried great sway. You just need to look at Gotion or CATL — textbook examples of this influence operation.”
The former ambassadors noted that, in total, the Whitmer administration has offered approximately $4 billion in tax incentives and infrastructure enhancements to enable the establishment of the Gotion factory and a second facility, which is a Ford Motor factory for which CATL has pledged to provide critical technology.
“The details of the business relationship between CATL and Gotion are different,” Hoekstra said. “But the bottom line is we are enriching the Chinese battery industry at the expense of providing the opportunity for American or companies in our allied countries to expand and grow their business.”
According to Hoekstra and Cella, the Biden administration has been largely absent from significant discussions about the Gotion and CATL facilities, as well as other projects throughout the country that involve Chinese companies. Reports suggest that CATL is presently engaged in discussions to provide technology for a Tesla plant in the U.S. and revealed plans in March to participate in the development of a battery storage plant in Texas, Fox News Digital added.
“The Biden administration — there’s not a clear, consistent policy on how to react and deal with China,” Hoekstra told the outlet.
