{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://moolenaar.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/two-weeks-later-action-needed-governor-whitmer-following-ccp-spying", "Two Weeks Later: Action Needed from Governor Whitmer Following CCP Spying", "2024-10-16", "2024", "2024-10", "Republican", "House", "MI", "John R. Moolenaar", "M001194", "moolenaar.house.gov", "moolenaar", "https://moolenaar.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "Two weeks after five Chinese nationals who were studying at the University of Michigan were charged with spying on Michigan National Guard (MNG) assets at Camp Grayling more action is needed from Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the commander-in-chief of the MNG, to secure Camp Grayling and prevent espionage in Michigan.\n\nGovernor Whitmer needs to:\n\nCancel the millions of dollars in state funding for CCP-affiliated Gotion to bring 20-50 Chinese nationals to build and operate a battery component facility that is less than 100 miles from Camp Grayling.\n\nIssue a statement regarding the CCP espionage incident at Michigan\u2019s largest military base.\n\nAnswer questions about why the Michigan National Guard failed to stop the espionage from occurring.\n\nCall on the University of Michigan to end its partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). The U-M students charged with spying were studying at U-M as part of U-M\u2019s partnership with SJTU. SJTU is linked to the cyber-spying unit of China\u2019s People\u2019s Liberation Army (PLA).\n\nCall on the legislature to bar U-M from using state funding to support its joint institute with Shanghai Jiao Tong University.\n\nAfter federal charges were announced against the U-M students on October 2, Congressman John Moolenaar again called on Whitmer to end state funding for Gotion. He also called for the University of Michigan to shut down its joint institute with SJTU.\n\nThis is the second time during Whitmer\u2019s governorship that Chinese nationals at U-M have been caught spying on U.S. military installations.\n\nLast year, the Wall Street Journal reported the FBI is aware of over 100 incidents of Chinese nationals gate crashing at sensitive sites across the US in the past three years. When asked if the CCP would utilize the Gotion plant for this kind of espionage, Bill Evanina, the former director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center responded, \"100%.\"\n\nAdditionally, earlier this year, Obama Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testified to Congress that the planned Gotion site would be used for espionage by the CCP. He said, \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any question that they are going to take advantage of that situation and I think we have to be very vigilant about what the hell is going on.\"\n\nIn January 2024, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified to Congress that allowing CCP-affiliated businesses to operate in the United States \u201ccan still raise national security concerns because it provides a vehicle for [the CCP] to, if they want to leverage that access, to conduct surveillance or other operations that undermine our national security, and we\u2019ve seen time and time again, where they have used that access, leveraged that access, to do that.\u201d", 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/two-weeks-later-action-needed-governor-whitmer-following-ccp-spying"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3985459227114916, "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"}