After years of fiery protests, lawsuits and intense scrutiny over alleged Communist Party ties, the plan for a controversial multibillion-dollar Chinese electric vehicle battery plant in Michigan is officially dead.
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The setback comes just days before President Xi Jinping will meet US counterpart Donald Trump to talk about fair trade and economic relations in South Korea.
On Thursday, the state’s economic arm announced that it had suspended US$175 million in grants for the enterprise after determining that Gotion Inc., the US subsidiary of state-owned Gotion High-tech, had abandoned the project and defaulted on a 2023 grant agreement.
In a statement for the Post, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) said, while it is “not the outcome we hoped for, we recognise the tremendous responsibility we have to the people we serve to make sure their hard-earned tax dollars are spent wisely and appropriately”.
The MEDC added that it was “actively pursuing repayment” of the US$23.6 million it used to purchase 270 acres (109 hectares) for the project and another US$26.4 million that was given to Gotion, but not spent on preparation works for the mega development.
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The MEDC’s statement also noted that Gotion never met the criteria for the Critical Industry Programme’s state grant of US$125 million, so it was never disbursed.