{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://moolenaar.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/moolenaar-rubio-demand-cfius-review-gotion-ownership", "Moolenaar, Rubio Demand CFIUS Review of Gotion Ownership", "2023-09-21", "2023", "2023-09", "Republican", "House", "MI", "John R. Moolenaar", "M001194", "moolenaar.house.gov", "moolenaar", "https://moolenaar.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "Congressman John Moolenaar and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) have sent a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urging her and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to review the ownership of Gotion Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gotion High-Tech, which is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).\n\nIn their letter, the lawmakers urge Yellen to review Gotion\u2019s ownership because the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act prohibits foreign ownership over the supply of critical infrastructure and President Joe Biden has identified lithium batteries as critical infrastructure.\n\nThe lawmakers write:\n\n\"It is our understanding that CFIUS determined that Gotion\u2019s purchase of 400 acres in Michigan to build a battery plant is not a covered transaction. Regardless if CFIUS reviewed this transaction, we urge you to review Guoxuan High-Tech\u2019s ownership of Gotion Inc. to determine whether or not such ownership is covered by Section 1703 of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA), which requires CFIUS to review investments that afford a foreign person \u201cthe management, operation, manufacture, or supply of critical infrastructure.\u201d President Biden has identified electric vehicles and the lithium batteries that power them as critical parts of America\u2019s transportation infrastructure. It is not in the interest of the United States to allow the CCP to control facilities estimated to produce thousands of those batteries, much less to provide it with hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funded subsidies to do so.\"\n\nEarlier this year, Moolenaar urged Gotion Inc\u2019s American and European partners to break away from its CCP-controlled parent and seek new partners for its investments in America.\n\nU.S. Representatives Lisa McClain (R-MI), Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Mike Bost (R-IL), and John James (R-MI) also signed today\u2019s letter.\n\nThe full text of the letter is below.\n\nDear Secretary Yellen:\n\nWe write with regard to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) -affiliated company Guoxuan High-Tech\u2019s (also transliterated as \u201cGotion High-Tech\u201d) recent investments through its U.S. subsidiary, Gotion, Inc., in lithium battery manufacturing plants in Michigan and Illinois. Because of Guoxuan High-Tech\u2019s owners\u2019 membership and affiliation with the CCP, Guoxuan High-Tech\u2019s ownership of Gotion requires a rigorous review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The company\u2019s recent investments effectively hand substantive decision-making regarding the management, operation, manufacture and supply of a product the Biden Administration classifies as critical infrastructure to the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC).\n\nAlthough Guoxuan High-Tech\u2019s largest single shareholder is Germany\u2019s Volkswagen AG, which owns 30 percent of the company, the CCP and its members retain effective control of the company through multiple individual shareholders. Li Zhen, the company\u2019s founder and Chairman, is a member of the Anhui Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce, which is part of the CCP\u2019s United Front system and takes direction from the CCP. His son, Li Chen, who is also Guoxuan\u2019s CEO, is a member of the Baohe District Chinese People\u2019s Political Consultative Committee, which is an advisory body of the CCP. Li Zhen, Li Chen, and the holding company they collectively own 80 percent of, Nanjing Guoxuan Holding Group, own 17 percent of Guoxuan High-Tech\u2019s shares. Of Guoxuan\u2019s six remaining top shareholders, only Citibank is not wholly owned by the PRC, the government of the Hong Kong Special Autonomous Region, or the PRC\u2019s numerous state-owned funds and banks. It is clear that the CCP deliberately obscures its control and influence over Guoxuan, and thus Gotion, through this complex ownership structure.\n\nThe extent of the CCP\u2019s control over Guoxuan is explicitly mentioned in the company\u2019s corporate by-laws, which require the company \u201cto carry out Party activities in accordance with the Constitution of the [Chinese Communist Party].\u201d In 2021, Guoxuan High-Tech hosted several company retreats where employees were mandated to recite a pledge of loyalty to the Party, including to \u201cfight for communism.\u201d This is concerning, no less because the Biden Administration itself has described the PRC in its 2022 National Security Strategy as the \u201conly competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it,\u201d and that \u201cBeijing frequently uses its economic power to coerce countries.\u201d The CCP\u2019s control over Guoxuan High-Tech is no exception to the Party\u2019s strategy to exert its influence in the United States.\n\nIt is our understanding that CFIUS determined that Gotion\u2019s purchase of 400 acres in Michigan to build a battery plant is not a covered transaction. Regardless if CFIUS reviewed this transaction, we urge you to review Guoxuan High-Tech\u2019s ownership of Gotion Inc. to determine whether or not such ownership is covered by Section 1703 of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA), which requires CFIUS to review investments that afford a foreign person \u201cthe management, operation, manufacture, or supply of critical infrastructure.\u201d President Biden has identified electric vehicles and the lithium batteries that power them as critical parts of America\u2019s transportation infrastructure. It is not in the interest of the United States to allow the CCP to control facilities estimated to produce thousands of those batteries, much less to provide it with hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funded subsidies to do so.\n\nIt is clear that CFIUS must conduct a closer review of Guoxuan High-Tech\u2019s ownership of Gotion, Inc. Failing to do so would send a signal to Beijing, and its proxies, that they can continue to use non-traditional means to harm U.S. national security with impunity. In the interest of U.S. national security, we respectfully request you conduct an immediate CFIUS review, and if necessary, order the divestment of Gotion, Inc by Guoxuan High-Tech and its CCP owners.\n\nThank you for your attention to this matter.\n\nSincerely,", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T00:37:48Z"]], "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-rubio-demand-cfius-review-gotion-ownership"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4804759994149208, "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"}