The Republican majority in Michigan’s House of Representatives this week put forward a package of nine bills shielding against foreign influence in the state.
The bills would prevent hostile foreign entities from buying land, surveilling military bases and other critical infrastructure, collecting sensitive data from government devices and databases, signing contracts with the state, and benefiting from state economic incentive programs. The legislation also addresses foreign influence in public schools, colleges, and universities.
The two main bills in the package were introduced on March 13 and are discussed below.
The action comes after several years of growing concern about Chinese influence in the state.
In one notable incident, five Chinese nationals were caught at night outside a remote National Guard training camp in Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula in August 2023.
The purpose of the grants was to help incentivize Gotion to build a $2.36 billion factory in rural west-central Michigan that would produce the chemical components used in EV batteries, creating a projected 2,350 new jobs.
The factory is slated to be constructed on about 200 acres of farmland near the college town of Big Rapids, Michigan, home to Ferris State University.
The boards of trustees of Green Charter Township, Big Rapids Township, and the Mecosta County Board of Commissioners, who initially all passed resolutions of support for the project coming into their jurisdiction, have since rescinded their resolutions, mainly due to alleged close connections between Gotion and the Chinese Communist Party.
The five Chinese nationals, all students at the University of Michigan, were formally charged in 2024 with lying to investigators and conspiring to delete photo evidence from their cell phones.
Their cases are still pending.
Two Key Bills
As part of the Republican package of legislation, Rep. Mike Hoadley (R-Au Gres) introduced House Bill 4241, which would bar hostile foreign powers from receiving economic incentives from the state.“Our national security is at stake when hostile powers operate within our state borders. These threats are exponentially greater when they receive financial support and public funding,” Hoadley said in a statement.
“There is no scenario where our enemies should receive taxpayer funding.”
Rep. David Martin (R-Davison) introduced House Bill 4236, another of the bills in the package, dealing with the ability of hostile foreign powers and those they control to contract with the state of Michigan.
According to a statement from Martin, the prime targets of the proposed bills are China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and the Venezuelan regime of Nicolas Maduro. Entities controlled by those countries would be barred from state contracts and from receiving taxpayer-funded economic incentives.
The 2013 hacking of U.S. Veterans Affairs databases by the Chinese military underscored the need for the legislation, according to the statement from Martin, who’s a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. The hack compromised the personal information of millions of American veterans.
“We have seen a number of threats the past several years. ... We need to take steps as lawmakers that protect our residents, as well as the men and women who wear the uniform,” he said.
Martin said in the statement, “It is a matter of national security and public safety that we keep our nation’s adversaries out of our state contracts.”
Many contractors with the state have access to critical infrastructure and personal, identifiable information. Martin said he wants to “make sure those with access to these resources are trustworthy, dependable, and most importantly, not a threat to our communities.”
Rep. Ranjeev Puri, the Democrat minority leader in the House, did not respond to a request for comment.
