Chinese Parent Of US Battery Maker Has Business Ties With Blacklisted CCP

Gotion High-Tech, the Chinese parent company of Gotion Inc., which intends to build electric battery plants in Michigan and Illinois, operates a joint venture in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that contracts with a U.S.-sanctioned entity, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of Chinese-language news reports and business filings.

In May 2017, Gotion High-Tech Co. Ltd. established a joint venture with Shanghai Electric Co. Ltd. called “Shanghai Electric Gotion New Energy Technology Co. Ltd.,” according to Chinese news website Sohu.com.

“On the evening of May 12, Gotion High-Tech Co., Ltd. announced that it would jointly invest funds with Shanghai Electric Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as ‘Shanghai Electric’) to establish Shanghai Electric Gotion New Energy Technology Co., Ltd.,” Sohu.com reported.

In July 2023, Shanghai Electric Gotion New Energy Technology’s social media account reported that the firm has been operating a battery energy storage system for a Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) power station located in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

“In days past, Shanghai Electric Gotion won the bid for the 60-megawatt / 180-megawatt per hour battery energy storage system for XPCC 1st Division 10th Regiment and State Power Investment Corporation’s 400-megawatt photovoltaic power generation project,” Shanghai Electric Gotion’s social media account stated.

XPCC signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement in 2020 with the state-run State Power Investment Corporation to “jointly promote the development of new energy projects, develop smart energy ecosystem and electricity support industries, cultivate talent, jointly build expertise and cooperate extensively in various other fields,” according to Sohu.com.

“The 400-megawatt photovoltaic power station of XPCC 1st Division’s 10th Regiment and State Power Investment Corporation is complemented by the 60 megawatt / 180-megawatt per hour battery energy storage system project located in XPCC 1st Division’s city of Aral, Xinjiang,” Shanghai Electric Gotion’s social media post continued. “This project’s energy storage system uses Shanghai Electric Gotion’s most advanced, standardized, modular, large battery core, liquid-cooling collection box, which by means of excellent system integration programs, will ensure the smooth connection of the project to the grid.”

In July 2020, the Treasury Department sanctioned XPCC for its human rights abuses, according to a press release.

“The XPCC is a paramilitary organization in the XUAR that is subordinate to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” the Treasury Department’s 2020 press release stated.

“The entity and officials are being designated for their connections to serious human rights abuse against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, which reportedly include mass arbitrary detention and severe physical abuse, among other serious abuses targeting Uyghurs, a Turkic Muslim population indigenous to Xinjiang, and other ethnic minorities in the region,” said the Treasury Department. As a result of the sanctions, federal regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within the U.S. that involve any property or interests in property of XPCC.

In June 2021, the Commerce Department added XPCC to the “Entity List” for “accepting or utilizing forced labor in the implementation of the People’s Republic of China’s campaign of repression against Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).”

In January 2021, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo determined that the PRC is committing genocide against Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang.

“After careful examination of the available facts, I have determined that the PRC, under the direction and control of the CCP, has committed genocide against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,” Pompeo said in a 2021 press statement.

In 2022, the State Department’s Country Report on Human Rights detailed the extent of the PRC’s ongoing genocide and other crimes against humanity.

“Genocide and crimes against humanity occurred during the year against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,” the State Department’s 2022 report reads. “These crimes were continuing and included: the arbitrary imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty of more than one million civilians; forced sterilization, coerced abortions and more restrictive application of the country’s birth control policies; rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence; torture of a large number of those arbitrarily detained; and persecution including forced labor and draconian restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression and freedom of movement.”

In August, Fox News reported that…