Pritzker Pens Deal With ChiComms To Give Them $536 Million To Open an EV Battery Assembly Plant

Pritzker Pens Deal With ChiComms To Give Them $536 Million To Open an EV Battery Assembly Plant

Governor Pritzker has been begging for an EV battery plant to come to Illinois for a couple of years now. Before last Friday, Crains reported that the state had lost out on 18 such plants as they chose other states to locate to instead of expensive Illinois. Finally, though Pritzker found a friend in the Chinese Communist Party and inked a deal on Friday that will bring a $2 billion EV battery assembly plant to Manteno on a defunct old Kmart distribution site. The incentive according to Crains includes $125 million upfront, and then an additional waiver of employee income taxes for a total deal of $536 million. I have also been told that the local property tax will be frozen at $2 million for decades, which is double its current tax – relayed to me by a reliable source. Pritzker’s DCEO director, signed the deal with, Chen Li, the President of Gotion, Inc. (As a reminder the DCEO director is Kristen Richards, previously the director of IDES when $5.2 BILLION was stolen of taxpayer money. Now she’s inking deals with the ChiComms.) Here’s a screenshot of the signature page of the lengthy deal. Read it here.

So who is Mr. Chen Li? According to his profile on the World Economic Forum which he has an affiliation with he is a member of CPPCC of Boahe District in Hefei City, China. Educated in the US, but 100% Chinese Communist. CPPCC – Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference is a political advisory group to the PRC and an important part of the Chinese Communist Party.

I asked a Chinese friend to do some research looking at Chinese publications. Here’s what I received back.

1. Why do the Chinese come to the US?

For the EV buyers to continue receiving a $7,500 tax credit, the IRA Act sets the requirements that the batteries must be made and assembled in the US AND a certain % of the minerals must come from the FTA (Free Trade) Ally countries. As such, the Chinese EV/Solar companies can no longer be a viable supplier if their operations remain in China.  Gotion supposedly has signed a large contract with an undisclosed public US EV manufacturer. The investment is largely motivated by the contract and the projected growth of the US EV market. Apparently, this US company is lobbying for Gotion behind the scenes. Gotion’s head of R&D, Yi Cai, admitted in a separate article that Gotion has a long-term, strategic plan: – AI Data: Data is a “goldmine”. Gotion will collect data to “predict battery performance” to inform drivers. They will sell the data as well.  All the data collected from the EV pack will be shared with and analyzed by Gotion.  Meanwhile, Gotion has been quietly operating in the US since 2005. (工研总院院长蔡毅：现在很多最新材料研发的突破，其实是和AI、大数据密切相关的。我们上个月刚刚成立了数字工程院，原来是信息工程院的一部分，现在专门剥离出来，由这个独立的部门专门推动数字国轩的发展。 我们有很多大数据，收集了海量的、各式各样的测量数据，过去这些数据都在个人的电脑里，或者在服务器里，这是一个金矿，我们一直没有能力把这个金矿挖掘出来，随着数字分析的部门成立，他们已经开始挖掘过去的数据宝藏。 每一台设备都有成百甚至上千的数据采集，这些数据采集我们放在云里，这些数据也是一个非常宝贵的宝藏。我们产品送到客户手中，卖给终端使用者的时候，这些电池包都在我们密切监控之下，我们专门有一个大数据的分析团队，所有的电池包使用过程中核心的数据，我们都能远程监控。) (Source: 国轩高科李缜：碳酸锂不降价，新能源汽车、储能都没有未来_数据_市场_价格 (sohu.com)) – One Road One Belt:  EV companies are an integral part of China’s long-term, One Road One Belt strategic plan to overtake the world. Gotion has been placed in Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand, and Singapore, admitting this strategy because these countries are of geopolitical significance for globalization (the link below literally says so: Globalization Strategic Deployment landed in Thailand, Gotion will build a battery export base in Eastern Alliance).  Whoever controls the renewable energy technology will be the new Saudi, and controls the world. (Source: 全球化战略布局落子泰国 国轩高科欲打造电池出口东盟基地_腾讯新闻 (qq.com))

2. Funding of Gotion plant in MI

According to a Chinese article that brags about this move, funding of the total $2.36 Billion investment in the MI plant comes from: $175 Million directly from the Michigan Strategic FundA parcel of land valued at $540 MillionAn undisclosed amount of prepayment from the US EV manufacturer (Source: 国轩高科开厂开到美国，意义多大？-观察者网 (guancha.cn))

3. Control of Gotion

On the paper, the German car manufacturer Volkswagen Group owns 26% of Gotion in a 2020 transaction. HOWEVER, the founder Zhen Li (last name is Li, Chinese name 李縝) remains the 2nd largest shareholder while retaining the ultimate control of the company because Volkswagen “decided” to give up its voting right of its shares.  I think the transaction intends to “window dress” Gotion as a “German” company to prepare it for its global expansion.  (Source in Chinese: 国轩高科引入战投项目落定！大众中国投资以近87亿元入局，成第一大股东 (nbd.com.cn))

4. Who is Zhen Li (李縝)

He is the father of Chen Li. First of all, there are no true private companies in China. Every business is controlled by the government by placing a puppet in the front.  Zhen Li has a long history with the CCP and he remains a prominent member of the Chinese parliament, Anhui Province parliament, and a city councilman of Hefei City. His career is: 1984-1986: Started as a political division staff member of a state-owned enterprise in Anhui Province1984-1992: Worked at the Center for Economic Research in Hefei City Government (Hefei is the state capital of Anhui)1992-2001: The general manager of the Center for Economic Research (above)2001-2006: Manager of Gotion Investments (How did he make the leap from a state clerk to a multi-millionaire?)2006: Founded the Gotion Energy Company (he has no background in research and technology, just a bureaucrat) Everything sounds fishy with this guy. His son is now in the US on the ground to run the operations. After reading what Chinese publications are saying about the Gotion deal, as related by one of my Chinese friends, an informed Chinese American, there is no doubt that Pritzker has just given our tax dollars to the Chinese Communist Party.

REV (Reimagine Electric Vehicles) Tax Credit

Now back to my comments. Pritzker has been enticing ANYONE in this industry with the new Reimagine Electric Vehicles (REV)Tax Credit that was passed in late 2021 to attract electrical vehicle manufacturers and associated industries to the state. Nearly everyone voted for it in the House and Senate. I doubt some of those people thought we would go into business with a Chinese Communist. It was a massive tax give-away as Crains explained in this editorial supporting the credit in October 2021.  “Gov. J.B. Pritzker is right to do all he can to promote Illinois as a hub of electric vehicle manufacturing. He’s doing just that with a new and massive incentive package that Crain’s Greg Hinz reckons may be the largest ever offered in the state’s history. Included are a wide range of tax breaks, from payroll credits and exemptions from utility and some sales taxes, to assistance with job training and favored treatment in obtaining government permits and road construction funds.” To date, there have been four companies that have received approval for these multi-million dollar tax credits. One of those companies is Texas-based Manner Polymers which opened up an 80,000 square foot building with a $54 million investment to make polymers. They qualify for the credit in part because they are building a 15-acre solar farm that is supposedly going to provide 100% of their electricity needs. I want that verified. There is no way that this claim made by Pritzker in the announcement is true. And the only remote possible way is that when their solar farm produces excess energy they get credit for sending it back to the grid. This doesn’t count. That is the most inefficient way to generate electricity. When the sun isn’t shining in Mt. Vernon, or actually even when it is, the MISO grid is primarily supported by COAL! The other interesting thing is that polymers of the sort they are making use fossil fuel as a key component to making their plastics. Oops – I thought we wanted solar power to get rid of oil and natural gas. But, hey – at least Manner Polymers is an American company.I’m not a fan of picking winners and losers by handing out tax credits to only certain companies and only in certain industries, I am especially not a fan of giving our adversaries access to millions of tax incentives. It is insanity! While our servicemen literally train to defeat the Chinese in a potential war, that seems to be closer with every day that Biden remains in office, Pritzker is handing them hard cash to compete against us in a technological field we are able to lead in.

Here’s Nick training for F18 duty, potentially against Pritzker’s friends. He posted this on Facebook.

Instead of millions in support to Chinese businesses, consider prioritizing bringing good water to the people in downstate Illinois. Here’s a picture from Kansas, IL a month ago of the water in their system.

Meanwhile, Illinois Is Leading the Pack in the country with 61% of its small businesses losing revenues this past August. Business owners say that interest rate hikes, inflation and a drop in consumer spending are all contributing factors. The most affected industries are gyms, beauty salons and education. The hostile business environment in Illinois is undoubtedly to blame as well. Maybe instead of $536 million to the ChiComms, Pritzker should be taking his boot off the neck of small business. Don’t forget his party passed legislation just a couple of months ago that hurts small business such as the misnamed Equal Pay Act – A Gotcha Hiring Bill, paid leave for any reason, and laws that increase energy costs and unemployment taxes