Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, applauded Ford Motor Company's decision to pause a project he and other Republicans have opposed over its ties to China.
Ford announced Monday it had paused construction on its proposed $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Marshall, Michigan, which it was planning in conjunction with Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), a Chinese battery maker.
In the months since the Ford project was announced in February, experts and Republicans, including Gallagher, have warned the project could threaten national security given CATL's ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
"After months of investigation by the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, we're encouraged to see Ford take a crucial first step to reevaluate its deal with Chinese Communist Party-aligned EV battery firm, CATL," Gallagher said in a statement shared with FOX Business.
"CATL's deep ties to CCP forced labor have no place in the American market and make the company exceptionally unfit to receive American taxpayer dollars," he said. "Now, Ford needs to call off this deal for good."
In July, Gallagher and House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., opened a joint investigation into the Ford-CATL factory, expressing concern about how the deal would expose Ford to greater "reliance on Chinese technology, minerals, and employees." They further warned the deal may involve importing Chinese workers and noted potential indirect ties to forced labor in the Xinjiang province of China.
The pair requested Ford share its licensing agreement with CATL, documents and communications with CATL and any measures it has taken to ensure CATL remains a sound commercial partner.
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"It has come to our attention that Ford may remain dependent on the PRC for critical battery inputs and components, like cathode active materials," Gallagher and Smith wrote to Ford CEO Jim Farley. "If your company embraces this technology while outsourcing its own environmental stewardship to the PRC, Ford will maintain its reliance on PRC production of this critical input and continue to depend on China for raw materials."
"Recent actions by the PRC government reiterate the danger of relying heavily on the PRC for supply chain inputs and should give pause to any company looking to expand such reliance," they added.
Similarly, a group of more than two dozen Republicans led by Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee Chair Morgan Griffith, R-Va., wrote to Farley earlier this month, also expressing concern over the proposed plant.
Ford has repeatedly denied it has a partnership with CATL, instead saying it would license battery cell technology from the Chinese company, contracting with them for "specific services."
Although it is not state-owned, Chinese investors tied to the CCP have held financial stakes in CATL, according to a New York Times review. The Chinese government has also taken strategic steps over the last decade to bolster CATL and other electric vehicle industry companies based in China.
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In addition, Zeng Yuqun, who founded CATL in 2012 and remains its top executive, was identified last year as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee. According to a U.S. government report published in 2018, the CPPCC is a "critical coordinating body" that brings together representatives of Chinese interest groups and is led by the CCP’s Politburo Standing Committee.
The CPPCC highlighted Yuqun's work with CATL fortifying China's lithium supply chains that are crucial for electric vehicle production and other green energy development.
