{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://moolenaar.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/moolenaar-detroit-news-news-article-gave-ccp-pass", "Moolenaar to Detroit News: \u201cNews\u201d Article Gave CCP a Pass", "2024-10-15", "2024", "2024-10", "Republican", "House", "MI", "John R. Moolenaar", "M001194", "moolenaar.house.gov", "moolenaar", "https://moolenaar.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "By Congressman John Moolenaar\n\nChad Livengood\u2019s recent article on electric vehicles ignored serious issues regarding the Chinese Communist Party, supply chain security, and human rights abuses while offering a case for increasing the involvement of Chinese companies in America\u2019s auto industry that was far too optimistic. The article was also condescending to the common-sense concerns of Michigan residents. These issues affect all of us in Michigan, whether we work for an automaker or simply pay our taxes.\n\nThe Chinese Communist Party seeks to increase America\u2019s dependance on China as a way of controlling our country. In April 2020, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said, \u201cwe must tighten international production chains\u2019 dependence on China.\u201d Additionally, the CCP has identified battery technology as a \u201cmajor technical domain\u201d that it would like to dominate for years to come.\n\nTragically, the EV supply chains controlled by the CCP are intertwined with human rights abuses and its genocide of a minority group known as the Uyghurs. Uyghurs are Muslims living in northwest China and the CCP has put millions of them into internment camps where they are forced into slave labor. One of the companies tied to this genocide is Gotion High-Tech, whose subsidiary wants to build a facility in the Big Rapids area. The company is receiving $715 million in state subsidies and tax breaks.\n\nMichigan residents are not misguided in their concerns about CCP-affiliated companies, and having political leaders bring a spotlight to these issues is not wrong, as Livengood seemed to suggest. In fact, more journalistic skepticism of these companies would help all Michigan residents. In the case of Gotion, for example, Livengood wrote the company will bring \u201c2,350 jobs averaging about $51,000 a year\u201d to Mecosta County. This contradicts his paper\u2019s reporting from April 2023, when \u201cGotion has said in its application for a property tax exemption, it expects an annual average wage at the facility of $61,995.\u201d So far, not one media outlet \u2013 including the News \u2013 has bothered to ask Gotion why it is now offering average wages $11,000 less than it promised the state legislature a year ago. CCP-affiliated companies are always changing their story, but their goal remains the same: further the CCP\u2019s agenda and increase America\u2019s dependence on China.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:57:20Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://moolenaar.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/moolenaar-detroit-news-news-article-gave-ccp-pass"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.653438899666071, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}