Two Weeks Later: Action Needed from Governor Whitmer Following CCP Spying

Two weeks after five Chinese nationals who were studying at the University of Michigan were charged with spying on Michigan National Guard (MNG) assets at Camp Grayling more action is needed from Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the commander-in-chief of the MNG, to secure Camp Grayling and prevent espionage in Michigan.

Governor Whitmer needs to:

• Cancel the millions of dollars in state funding for CCP-affiliated Gotion to bring 20-50 Chinese nationals to build and operate a battery component facility that is less than 100 miles from Camp Grayling.
• Issue a statement regarding the CCP espionage incident at Michigan's largest military base.
• Answer questions about why the Michigan National Guard failed to stop the espionage from occurring.
• Call on the University of Michigan to end its partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). The U-M students charged with spying were studying at U-M as part of U-M's partnership with SJTU. SJTU is linked to the cyber-spying unit of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA).
• Call on the legislature to bar U-M from using state funding to support its joint institute with Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

After federal charges were announced against the U-M students on October 2, Congressman John Moolenaar again called on Whitmer to end state funding for Gotion. He also called for the University of Michigan to shut down its joint institute with SJTU.

This is the second time during Whitmer's governorship that Chinese nationals at U-M have been caught spying on U.S. military installations.

Last year, the Wall Street Journal reported the FBI is aware of over 100 incidents of Chinese nationals gate crashing at sensitive sites across the US in the past three years. When asked if the CCP would utilize the Gotion plant for this kind of espionage, Bill Evanina, the former director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center responded, "100%."

Additionally, earlier this year, Obama Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testified to Congress that the planned Gotion site would be used for espionage by the CCP. He said, "I don't think there's any question that they are going to take advantage of that situation and I think we have to be very vigilant about what the hell is going on."

In January 2024, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified to Congress that allowing CCP-affiliated businesses to operate in the United States "can still raise national security concerns because it provides a vehicle for [the CCP] to, if they want to leverage that access, to conduct surveillance or other operations that undermine our national security, and we've seen time and time again, where they have used that access, leveraged that access, to do that."

Finally, the Department of Defense is prohibited from purchasing products from Gotion because of Gotion High-Tech's partnerships with China's People's Liberation Army.