by Nick Pope
A group of Republican lawmakers is calling on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to effectively ban imports from two Chinese battery manufacturers doing business in the U.S.
Five Republicans – including Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Select Committee Chairman John Moolenaar, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio – wrote letters to DHS Under Secretary for Strategy, Policy and Plans Robert Silvers asking that the agency blocks battery manufacturers CAT AND Gotion High-Tech from transporting goods to the US due to links to forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region.
CATL is part of a licensing agreement with Ford, which is building a plant in Michigan to produce batteries using CATL’s technology and know-how, and Gotion High-Tech subsidiary Gotion Inc. plans to build two major plants in Michigan AND Illinois with federal and state grants.
Inclusion on the UFLPA designated entity list would pose significant obstacles to companies’ hopes of establishing lucrative long-term operations in the U.S. According to to the Wall Street Journal.
The letters state that companies’ supply chains are “deeply threatened” by Uyghur Muslim slave labor in Xinjiang, a region in western China that is ground zero for the CCP’s ongoing genocide against Uyghurs. According to to the Department of State. Lawmakers sent one letter to Silvers regarding each company. The two letters are very similar in the sense that they identify some of the same problematic entities that both companies are associated with and insist that Silver place these companies on the list of entities subject to Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) of 2021
Gotion Inc. Chief Technology Officer Steven Cai was present when a CCP official from Anhui set up an overseas Chinese workstation in @Gotion48660headquarters in Cali to “carry out talent recruitment work in Anhui Province” in June 2017.
See @DailyCallerreport for more information:https://t.co/7WmoemHnkI pic.twitter.com/5xAEK3m4my
— Philip Lenczycki 蔡岳 (@LenczyckiPhilip) April 7, 2024
The two companies are emblematic of a “broader pattern” in which Chinese companies seek to gain access to the U.S. market while their suppliers obfuscate supply chain ties to entities known or suspected of committing abuses in Xinjiang – wrote the lawmakers.
In the case of Gotion High-Tech, lawmakers specifically highlighted its ties to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a U.S.-blacklisted CCP paramilitary unit that has played a leading role in abuses against Uyghurs. In addition to the XPCC, lawmakers created a convoluted network of suppliers to demonstrate the level of exposure of Gotion High-Tech’s supply chain to forced Uyghur labor.
“Gotion’s supply chains are at significant risk from associations with entities whose goods, commodities, articles or commodities are mined, produced or produced in whole or in part in [Xinjiang]. As a result, we are requesting that he be added to the UFLPA Entity List and that his shipments be prohibited from entering the United States,” the lawmakers wrote. “We are ready to provide [Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF)]with all necessary source information related to the links and information provided above. If for any reason, after a thorough review of our evidence, FLETF decides not to include Gotion on the UFLPA Entity List, we will request a briefing from the decision-making officials immediately after that decision is made.
The Daily Caller News Foundation has reported extensively on Gotion’s U.S. subsidiary and subsidiary’s efforts to establish operations in the U.S acquaintances to CCP through its parent company, including in October 2023 investigation showing that Gotion High-Tech has established a business relationship with XPCC. The company is partly owned by German car giant Volkswagen.
Meanwhile, according to lawmakers, CATL has its own upstream connections to XPCC. Like Gotion’s letter, lawmakers cite extensively from primary sources and academic materials to demonstrate in detail that CATL’s supply chain is vulnerable to forced Uyghur labor and therefore the company should be subject to UFLPA restrictions.
“This is not the first or only link we have identified between CATL, forced labor, and the genocide of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang,” the lawmakers wrote. “The Select Committee disclosed CATL’s prior 23.6% ownership in Xinjiang Zhicun Lithium Industry Co., Ltd., a company identified as participating in state labor transfer programs involving forced labor, until its divestiture in February 2023 within 48 hours The 61.2% stake in Xinjiang Zhicun was purchased by a confined partnership fund financially backed by CATL, one of its subsidiaries, and managed by Guan Chaoyu, a former CATL board member who oversaw battery production and supply chains.
Claims that CATL is in any way linked to forced labor are “completely false,” a CATL spokesman told The Wall Street Journal. CATL did not immediately respond to DCNF’s request for comment on this matter.
In September 2023, Ford suspended construction of a plant in Michigan where it intends to leverage CATL’s licensed technology and expertise before resuming operations with reduced plans.
The plant “will be owned and operated by Ford,” a Ford spokesman told DCNF, adding that “regardless of their relationship with us, all Ford suppliers must comply with our Supplier Code of Conduct.” The representative added that “the behaviors expected of suppliers as outlined in our code of conduct speak for themselves,” responding to a follow-up question about whether the statements in the letter might suggest to Ford that CATL may not be complying with its expectations.
Gotion, Gotion High-Tech and Volkswagen did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Nick Pope is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Gotion” by Gotion.
