HOT-BUTTON ISSUE: Despite warnings from US intelligence agencies, local groups in Michigan support a proposed Chinese plant near a US base, the diplomat said

Staff writer, with CNA

Troops from US allies, including Taiwan, have been training at Michigan’s Camp Grayling, a former US diplomat told US lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

Joseph Cella, a former US ambassador to Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga and Tuvalu, made the remarks during a US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The US government had not previously confirmed the presence of Taiwanese troops at the US National Guard base.

Joseph Cella, a former US ambassador to Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga and Tuvalu, speaks during a US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing on the Chinese Communist Party in Washington on Tuesday.

Photo: Screen grab from a video on the committee’s Web site

Cella, the director of the Michigan China Economic Security and Review Group, said a proposed factory by Chinese lithium-ion battery maker Gotion High Tech Co would be about 113km from Camp Grayling and would pose a threat to the secure US military installation.

“Camp Grayling is the hub of the National All-Domain Warfighting Center, which trains our troops and those of our allies, including Taiwan, in strategic and tactical battle operations,” he said.

The facility is the largest National Guard training facility in the US, the Michigan National Guard Web site says.

During a congressional hearing last year, US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner was asked if he agreed that any location, including Camp Grayling, that are training Taiwanese troops should be considered a sensitive site.

Ratner at the time did not confirm that Taiwanese soldiers were at the site, saying that he preferred to discuss topics of military engagement with Taiwan in a classified setting.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Cella discussed the threat the proposed plant posed.

“I witnessed malign influence through a subnational incursion and influence operation by a PRC [People’s Republic of China]-based and CCP-tied lithium-ion battery manufacturer, Gotion, in rural Green Charter Township, Michigan” he said, referring to alleged attempts of bribery and corruption to secure approval of the plant.

“US national security and intelligence agencies convened a group of bipartisan state and local elected officials, and business executives across the country to warn them of China’s political warfare,” he said. “Despite these warnings, all supporting the Gotion project brazenly defied them… And that’s just one of many examples across the United States of how China threatens our national security and sovereignty.”

The factory has become a hot-button political topic in Michigan in the run-up to the US presidential election in early November.

Republicans have spoken out against the plant, while Democrats have been more supportive of it.