Michigan’s $1 Billion EV Project With China Unlikely to Succeed: Journalist

A portion of the General Motors Factory Zero, which will manufacture GMs GMC Hummer EV truck as well as other electric GM vehicles in Detroit, Michigan on August 5, 2021. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

The Michigan legislature approved a $1 billion spending plan on Oct. 5, with $846 million going to a Chinese company specializing in EV batteries, but it would be more beneficial to use these funds for local infrastructure, according to Charlie LeDuff, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist.

LeDuff characterized the deal as corporate socialism, which he said is the government is picking who will win, who will be the source of manufacturing, and who will make a profit.

“This is a capitalistic society. No way in the world were workers ever supposed to guarantee the company the profit. ... How is it that we the broke people whose kids can’t read are being sure that you’re making profit?” LeDuff said in an interview with NTD’s “China in Focus” on Oct 29.

Uncertain Outcome

“Ninety-five percent of these deals that the state and local governments around here get into never pan out to what they promised,” he noted.

Chinese-owned Gotion Inc. will build a plant in Big Rapids, Michigan with a total investment capital of $2.4 billion over the first six years, and is expected to create 2,350 jobs over the next decade, Detroit News reported.

Yet, in his opinion, there is no guarantee that these jobs will last.

“Trade deals are particularly raw in this part of the world because they didn’t work. Here, where I live, first-world workers have been turned into second-hand choppers in one generation,” he opined.

Given the uncertainty of the project outcome, the journalist suggested that the amount be invested in schools, physical infrastructure, and roads in the area instead.

“[Michigan’s roads] are notoriously the worst in the country,” he noted.

LeDuff also pointed to a report from Chalkbeat Detroit stating that 60 percent more Michigan third graders could be held back this year because of low reading scores.

“Our reading scores are falling, especially after COVID. One-third of our third graders in Michigan can’t read,” he said.

In his opinion, the state should tackle this education problem on its own.

“We must work our way out of this instead of crossing our fingers and hoping the multi-nationals gonna do as right, because normally they don’t,” he stressed.

And the fund he said, is subsidizing China, the country’s biggest future threat with its military power, political influence, and economic influence.

Not Fit for Green Energy

LeDuff further pointed out that renewable and green energy of this kind is not suitable for the state of Michigan.

“Michigan has one of the worst electric grids in the United States, some of the most expensive and some of the least reliable,” he noted.

“Every time it rains here, the power goes out for a couple of days and a million people are in the dark.”

He questioned: “How do you charge your car?” adding “We don’t have the capacity to plug it in now.”

“So it seems to me, we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves, the electric wagon before the horsepower. We don’t have it. Maybe we’re creating a problem for ourselves,” LeDuff said.