Testimony On Marshall Megasite, CATL Taken Up By Joint Legislative Committee

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 06/12/2025) Opposing testimony on the Marshall Megasite from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and Joseph Cella, Director of the Michigan China Economic and Security Review Group, was taken up in a joint committee Wednesday by the House Oversight Subcommittee on Corporate Subsidies and State Investments and the House Homeland Security and Foreign Influence Oversight Subcommittee.

The MEDC gave a presentation on the cash funding sources, timeline and incentive comparison of Ford BlueOval Battery Michigan, also referred to as the Marshall Megasite. The committee’s interest in the project, however, mostly centered around the involvement of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., LTD (CATL), the Chinese-owned company tasked with producing lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. 

Although MEDC representatives Christin Armstrong and Josh Hundt said no public money “has been, or will be” awarded to CATL through the project, some representatives who were particularly concerned about the potential of having ties to the Chinese Communist Party were unconvinced. 

“What I’m seeing is you have an economic development site that went to Ford, but it’s really going to CATL indirectly,” Rep. Jaime Greene (RA-Richmond) said. She said the situation is analogous to a parent giving their college-aged child money for groceries; the college student is going to spend the money on beer no matter what the parent says the money is for. 

Rep. William Bruck (R-Erie) said more can be done on the MEDC’s part to hold companies accountable for what entities they are giving taxpayer dollars to. Rep. Luke Meerman (R-Coopersville) voiced concern about the “Chinese Communist Party looking to subvert this nation in any way possible.”

Rep. Steve Carra (R-Three Rivers) pointed out that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s dismissal of claims of danger with CATL contrasts directly to President Joe Biden putting the company on a banned list preventing them from doing work with the U.S. military.

Carra asked if BlueOval is committed to not working with CATL, to which Armstrong responded that is a question to ask Ford.

Armstrong said the only involvement CATL has with the project is through an intellectual property licensing agreement with Ford. The partnership between CATL and Ford has been public knowledge throughout the voting process on the Megasite, she said. 

Hundt said, ultimately, the U.S. does need to invest in the technology CATL is providing for electric vehicles, but using CATL’s technology is a step in making these vehicles more competitive in the U.S. 

“They are the only ones that can provide this technology, and we need to get that technology here, so our American companies can be doing it right now,” Armstrong said. “China has an absolute monopoly on that technology.”

Cella, who is also the former U.S. Ambassador to Fiji, testified in opposition to the Marshall Megasite, describing the project as a “grand, high-tech and manufacturing high-risk experiment saddled on the back of Michigan taxpayers,” and said CATL is “deeply tied to the Chinese Communist Party.” 

He also claimed CATL is currently hiring employees for the Marshall Megasite, even sending some Ford employees to China for training. 

In a slight change of topic, Rep. Josh Schriver (R-Oxford) brought up “foreign-born laborers” to Cella, asking him if he would say “there is an adversarial edge to foreign labor coming into America as a whole at the behest of American workers who are more than qualified for these jobs.” 

Schriver also asked if the former Ambassador would concede that someone working who was born in “an adversarial nation like China, or a quote-unquote non-adversarial nation like India, either way, the victim is the Michigan worker.”  Cella agreed.

Schriver then asked him if he would support measures to cut off or eliminate the number of Chinese-born workers in America.

“I think this is a thing that ought to be studied,” Cella responded.