By: Mark Glennon*
When your go-to tactic is to label everything you don’t like as “right wing,” who better to blame than Tucker Carlson?
In a totally fabricated claim, that’s what Greg Hinz of Crain’s did on Twitter in connection with his Monday column about an email from Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy.
The article is also full of distortions and gross omissions about a multi-faceted scandal – the Illinois E.V. battery plant to be built by Gotion, which has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Hinz’s article singles out just one facet of the controversy – a short fundraising email sent by Tracy where Tracy calls out concerns about the plant’s proximity to military facilities. That’s what Hinz said was sourced by Tucker Carlson, a claim Hinz apparently made based because Tracy “referred” to a recent article from The Daily Caller, Hinz’s article says, which Carlson founded thirteen years ago.
But Carlson has had nothing whatsoever to do with the huge number of columns and criticisms about Gotion and its proposed projects in Illinois and Michigan, at The Daily Caller or anywhere else. Carlson left The Daily Caller over three years ago.
Hinz’s column happily repeats the Pritzker Administration spin on the controversy. Officials there, Hinz says, “have noted that while Gotion is a subsidiary of a Chinese firm that like all companies in that country interacts with its government, the battery operation is headquartered in California, is one of the largest producers of EV batteries worldwide and its biggest shareholder is Volkswagen.”
That’s utterly incomplete and disregards huge amounts of evidence about Gotion.
The Illinois plant is to be built by Gotion, Inc., which is wholly owned by Guoxuan High-Tech’s (also transliterated as “Gotion High-Tech”), according to Belt and Road Portal, a publication of the Chinese government.
That parent company’s bylaws expressly obligate it to loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party’s agenda. The parent’s Chairman, who joined Pritzker on the stage when announcing the Illinois plant, is Li Zhen, a member of the Anhui Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce, which is part of the CCP’s United Front system and takes direction from the CCP. His son, Li Chen, who is also the parent’s CEO, is a member of the Baohe District Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee, which is an advisory body of the CCP.
Trying to characterize Gotion as harmless because Volkswagen is “its biggest shareholder” is also completely misleading. Hinz did that even more overtly in an NPR Illinois radio interview last week.
Volkswagen, which owns just 30% or so of Gotion, expressly waived its voting rights as necessary to keep voting control vested in the Chinese founders. It’s board of directors is majority Chinese nationals, as are all of its major officers.
We’ve documented all of that and more on other facets of the scandal, in columns we are collecting here.
Tracy’s particular concern about the proximity of the proposed Gotion to military bases is probably the least of the Gotion issues, which is no doubt why Hinz singled it out. However, generally, the proximity of Chinese purchases of land or facilities near U.S. military installations is a topic of major, bipartisan, national concern, at the state and federal level. Among many reports you will find on that are these in Fortune and The Hill.
More broadly, however, and more importantly, if you don’t think spies are likely to be among Chinese nationals working for Chinese companies in the U.S., you simply haven’t been paying attention. Government warnings and news about it are everywhere. It’s “100% certain” that some of the people who come from China to work on Gotion projects will spy for the CCP? That’s according to to William Evanina, who served as the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center from 2014-2021 under former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, in congressional testimony.
Contempt for the Chinese Communist Party and those connected to it is entirely appropriate, but remember, above all else, that Chinese people are its greatest victims. Do not let hatred for the CCP spill over in any way to ethnic Chinese people, who are a model minority in the United States.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
**This column was updated to change the attribution and language about the U.S. subsidiary being wholly owned by the Chinese parent.
This column was also updated to add the italicized portion about William Evanina’s testimony on Chinese spying.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Rich Miller little dictator at Capfax blocks anyone that strongly disagrees with his point of view and have not clicked on his site for at least two years.
It’s sad. It wasn’t even that long ago that Crain’s used to be fairly legit journalism.
When? It’s been years and years
As you’d expect, Rich Miller at Capfax cheered the Hinz column, and has blacked out all stories critical of the Gotion deal. https://capitolfax.com/2023/09/25/ilgop-wants-to-stop-2600-new-jobs-from-being-created-in-a-republican-held-house-district/
I can still remember (barely) when most journalists were ‘neutral’ in reporting on a story…
Objectively analyzing the facts…
Not carrying the water for one side or the other…
Miller is King of The Fake News Frauds
Rich doesn’t like any viewpoints that might upset the kiddies in the Capfax playpen. It’s an incestuous group of inbred mouth breathers that have all required rotator cuff surgery from constantly patting themselves on the back. They championed their hero Madigan for decades, with the ridiculous argument that he was too smart to get caught, as if that was admirable. They represent the worst of Illinois.
“They championed their hero Madigan for decades, with the ridiculous argument that he was too smart to get caught”
Yep, I’m so old I remember when Madigan was supposed to be the inscrutable master of 12-dimensional political chess and “the adult in the room” in comparison to Blago (who now looks practically like a statesman in comparison to Pritzker and Biden).
You need to dig into Pritzker and his family’s finances to see what connection there may be with Gotion.
I personally don’t suspect Pritzker is motivated by personal financial gain. He has more money than he knows what to do with. However, indirect political and financial support from the corporate and financial interests that benefit from lax policies toward China are of value to him.
So it begins, in spite of the Marxists like Pritzker:
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/ford-suddenly-pauses-massive-ev-battery-project-republicans-probing-ccp-ties
That Ford “pause” on its Chinese project should be a big warning. It appears clear to me that the pause was motivated, at least in part, by fears of the coming glut of EV batteries and political heat over the Chinese involvement.
Some on the Pro Go FB want to convince you that it’s a labor issue 🤣
There is absolutely no reasonable way to explain the Gotion ‘deal’ – It is obscene and needs to be cancelled.
Pravda for Democrats – Add Crain’s.
I’m still curious if Gotion will be signatory to UAW? This is a generalization and maybe over simplification, but there’s a growing rift in dem party between old school Big 3 auto maker /UAW signatory /largely in industrial mid-west still manufacturing internal combustion cars VRS non-UAW signatory foreign manufactures of EVs and internal combustion cars in south. Locally & nationally, EVs along with the entire Green Deal politics appeal to upper-income lib dems who can afford to pay an extra $18gs for an EV but would be paying astronomically higher for that EV without all the crazy taxpayer funded state… Read more »
Fascinating RIVAN in Illinois is NOT UAW signatory….maybe CCP/Gotion will be supplying them w EV batteries on the taxpayers dime?
Today Bidens walken the picket lines with UAW in Michigan while he & dem party are simultaneously 100% behind taxpayer subsidizing non-union EV plants in mostly south and taxpayer EV subsidies for CCP oligarchs…..to make EVs that even with all the taxpayer subsidies, only the wealthy (AOC types) can afford?????
And yet the union humps did, and will again, vote for the party of the empty suit because their pinky ring sporting bosses tell them to. May they choke on whatever pos the Dems run while non union illegals take their jobs. Of course, that will be the big bad titans of industries fault, per the progressive Marxists. Tools.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/biden-sinking-stone-uaw-members-staying-sidelines
Hinz is a left-wing lunatic, just like all of them at Crain’s. Just because they call themselves “Crain’s Chicago Business” doesn’t mean they know anything about business. It’s like going to CNBC for investment and business information.
Followed and disgusted by Hinz for many years now. He is a total loser.
Gotion is offering a Trojan Horse. The offer gives JB a desperately needed win so he took the bait. The Chinese are playing Chess while the Dems are playing checkers.
Isn’t that earring just so fetching
I canceled my subscription to Crain’s. years ago, becuase they publish that POS. His column has been full of lies for years… The simple fact that the EB and the publisher enabled and rewarded his nonsense was enough for me to say buh-bye.
Glad to see nothing has changed.
He is exactly the type of guy about whom Orwell warned us… (Pol and the Eng Lang)
Canceled my subscription years ago for the very same reason.
As Illinois non-public-pension-entitled taxpayers know, the truth is not an effective argument against Pritzker-esques who thrive through mastery of spin. “Red menace’, while it may be true, is not a winning argument. “Corrupt political insiders will come to any town they like, steal your groundwater to amass trillions of personal profits, and your home value will be destroyed in the process” is equally true, but far more persuasive argument. There are laws in place to protect against predatory incursions in areas with small local governments (municipal, zoning, township, county) who are vulnerable to cozening. OMA is one of most effective,… Read more »
Hinz has no credibility and never has. Even in retirement he is a complete failure. Don’t go away mad Greg, just go away!
Hinz is the worst of the far left fake news fraudsters at Crains — Chicago’s anti-business business-newspaper
Great article! China is a closed economy and there are dark reasons why foreign companies aren’t allowed to set up shop there. Ultimately, they view any foreign investment or imports as hostile competition and commercial independence as a threat. Closed authoritarian regimes are marked by limited transparency, restricted freedoms, and a lack of openness. The communist party controls and restricts all information, limits political participation, and suppresses dissenting voices. The goal of communism is not to benefit people or improve relations, but to spread communism and ultimately collect tribute for the ruling party. To think that they’re negotiating in good… Read more »