Former CIA Director Leon Panetta warned lawmakers on Tuesday that a proposed Michigan electric vehicle plant could be used by the Chinese for espionage.
Panetta said the Chinese government will take advantage of the fact that it operates an EV battery plant in the U.S. The plant is being developed by a subsidiary of the China-based firm Gotion High-Tech.
“I don’t think there’s any question that they’re going to take advantage of that situation,” Panetta told Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI) during a House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party hearing. “And I think we have to be very vigilant about what the hell is going on. That’s just the way they operate. They’ll establish a manufacturing unit, they’ll establish whatever they can, and then they will use that for their own intelligence purposes. They will use that for their own economic purposes.”
He continued: “They’ll use it to be able to gain the kind of advantages that are counter, frankly, to the interests of the United States. I think it is very important in those situations to make sure that the United States, and that our intelligence capabilities are being used to make sure that we know what they are doing that could hurt the United States.”
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also agreed that the proposed plant could be a national security risk and should not be constructed.
“I think it is worse than the fact that they will engage in espionage. I think that’s just top of the list,” Pompeo said Tuesday. “They will use this in ways that will leverage Chinese advantage. These plants are deeply dangerous to our national security and ought not be built.”
Gotion announced the Michigan project in 2022 as part of a $2.4 billion investment in two EV plants, among other supporting facilities on 260 acres of land.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The company is also expected to build another plant in Illinois, which is estimated to cost $2 billion. However, both the Michigan and Illinois programs have received pushback from locals and defense officials who warned of the security risks.
“President Obama’s Defense Secretary and President Trump’s Secretary of State just testified under oath that Gotion and its plans in Michigan are a national security risk,” Moolenaar said in a statement, according to Fox News. “They know how the Chinese Communist Party operates and how it uses resources in America to hurt our country. They also said that it undermines our national security for states and communities to give tax subsidies to those companies. State and local economic development officials in Michigan need to listen to these experts and end the Gotion project.”