A Michigan community has successfully blocked a Chinese energy company's latest attempt to purchase two parcels of farmland in Green Charter Township, but despite the victory, residents say the fight is still far from over.
"We've got a small win here," local Lori Brock, who helped lead the fight against the purchase, told "Fox & Friends First" Monday. "It was because we didn't get any help from Michigan, but we called the federal EPA, and the federal EPA came up here and they and they got back some of the land for us."
CCP-allied industrial company Gotion withdrew its purchase of the agricultural land after community outcry, but is moving forward with developing an EV battery factory on hundreds of acres previously purchased in Mecosta County. The Biden administration approved the project in June after a months-long national security review.
BIDEN ADMIN GREEN-LIGHTS CHINESE EV BATTERY FACTORY IN MICHIGAN, DESPITE LOCAL OPPOSITION
"We're going to still continue to fight them every step of the way. We don't want them here. So we're going to do whatever it takes to keep them out of our community," Brock continued.
Jeff Thorne, another resident putting up the fight, said the community pulled off the win "the American way" by standing together for the common cause, for making their voices known and refusing to back down.
"We have a say in how we live and what goes on and what doesn't go out here," he told co-host Ashley Strohmier.
Also on Monday's panel, former Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon blasted Democrats for green-lighting Gotion's presence in the U.S.
"The Biden administration said it was OK," she said. "And yes, it should concern people that this Democrat governor came out and courted this company and then signed non-disclosure agreements around this," seh continued, adding that media coverage gave residents the information they needed to stop the development in its tracks.
"They could find out that there was no environmental review of this company. They could also find out that there are direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party…" she added, "And they were even able to fight the township board that would have circumvented the system and voted to have this property rezoned had the residents not come out informed and demanded a referendum and had a local vote on that."
The fight comes as concerns over Chinese ownership of U.S. property increase, with Chinese firms owning nearly 400,000 acres – valued at more than $2 billion – in American farmland.
U.S. Department of Agriculture data shows Chinese companies occupy more land in some states than others, with Texas ranking the highest at over 50,000 acres.
John Boyd, Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association, called the Chinese land grab a "national disgrace on behalf of the president."
"This takes away valuable farmland from America's farmers. So here you have nearly 385,000 acres now owned by the Chinese government, more land than the Bill Gates [owns] in this country. And this is a national security risk… China's been caught stealing our seeds. That's intellectual property. It's food security, and this administration isn't speaking out against it."
Boyd said he has reached out to Biden to discuss the topic in a meeting, but the offer has not been accepted.
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