Credit: The Telegraph
Two former U.S. ambassadors are bringing attention to the increasing number of green energy projects nationwide being developed with the involvement of Chinese companies.
Former U.S. Ambassadors Peter Hoekstra and Joseph Cella said Chinese companies have made a concerted effort to trade advantage of U.S. green energy goals. The companies are exploiting American tax incentives to build facilities and projects in the U.S., which in turn helps the Chinese industry and ensures continued U.S. reliance on technology from China.
“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, said in an interview.
“That is a terrible, terrible place to be.”
“Right now electric vehicle sales are about 3 to 5% 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.”
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Hoekstra added that China’s dominance throughout the green energy supply chain, from developing critical mineral mines in Africa to building battery components, exhibits intentionality that is “very perilous not only for our national security, but our economic security and prosperity as well.”
Earlier this year, Hoekstra, who also previously chaired the House Intelligence Committee, established the Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group, a watchdog group devoted to reviewing Chinese economic investments across the country with a particular focus on Michigan. Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer boasted last month that her administration has recently attracted $16.6 billion worth of electric vehicle (EV) and battery projects to the state.
Cella — who served as the U.S. ambassador to Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tuvalu, and Tonga from 2019 until 2021 — joined Hoekstra’s group as a director.
Together, Hoekstra and Cella have specifically called attention to two EV battery plant projects proposed for Michigan. The first, slated for Big Rapids, Michigan, involves the Hefei, China-based Gotion High-Tech while the second, proposed for Marshall, Michigan, involves the Ningde, China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL).
“Subnational incursions are afoot,” Cella said in an interview.
“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 said that altogether, the Whitmer Administration has promised about $4 billion in tax incentives and infrastructure improvements to facilitate the construction of the Gotion factory and the other facility, a Ford Motor factory which CATL has promised to provide key 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.”
