What is happening?
On August 28, Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI 2nd District), who chairs the House Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Communist Party of China (CCP), and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), sent a letter of recommendation to US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, requesting the Department of Defense to immediately place the Chinese battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL) on the list according to Section 1260H of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This list typically includes entities the Secretary of Defense identified as “Chinese military companies” operating directly or indirectly on US soil, with Huawei as one example. If CATL is added to this list, its presence in the U.S. domestic market will no longer be viable.
What is the broader picture?
In their letter, the lawmakers accused CATL of creating unfair market conditions and emphasized the company’s connections with high-ranking CCP officials and, recognizing the strategy of military-civil fusion, its links to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Due to these unfair conditions, CATL manages to control up to 37.5 percent of the global market for electric vehicle batteries and serves as a major supplier of battery infrastructure for the PLA. The letter further argues that CATL allegedly attempts to create dependencies in US critical infrastructure on Chinese technology.
On June 5, US lawmakers also sent two similar letters addressing CATL and another Chinese battery manufacturer, Gotion, to the Secretary of Homeland Security. In both letters, the lawmakers requested the Department include both companies on the list of entities under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which bans the import of goods that are made entirely or partly through forced labor in China, especially in East Turkestan. The letters provide extensive evidence of the companies’ direct ties to Chinese partner firms involved in human rights abuses and the ongoing genocide of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in China. These partner firms include the state-run paramilitary Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC, 新疆生产建设兵团), which is linked not only to forced labor but also to physical abuse of ethnic minorities members, their forced Sinicization and mass detention. If the DoH includes Gotion and CATL on this list, it would also mean the end of both companies’ operations in the US.
However, such an effort has been already ongoing for some time. Washington has found itself in a paradoxical situation where heavily subsidized Chinese tech companies receive financial incentives from American taxpayers, whose interests, according to the lawmakers, are contradictory to those of domestic producers who become effectively priced out in this distorted market environment. Therefore, last year, a bipartisan group of around fifty lawmakers led by John Moolenaaar and Darin LaHood (R-IL) introduced a bill known as the NO GOTION Act. The bill is currently in its first reading. It aims to deny certain tax breaks and financial incentives under President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to companies associated with problematic countries, specifically the PRC, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. If the bill passes in its current or similar form, not only could it mean the end of Gotion and CATL in the US, but it also potentially excludes other Chinese tech companies from the US market despite (or perhaps because of) extensive state subsidies from CCP.
Why does it matter?
The ambitions of CATL and Gotion go beyond penetrating the U.S. market. Both companies have substantial investments in European Union (EU) member states as well. CATL has already established factories in Germany and Hungary and supplies batteries to car manufacturers producing electric vehicles such as the Peugeot e-208, MG 4, and Tesla Model 3. Together with Stellantis (which includes brands like Fiat, Opel, Citroën, and American brands such as Chrysler, Dodge, or RAM), it signed a memorandum of understanding to supply batteries for cars that the automotive giant plans to export also to the US. Furthermore, both companies are considering the construction of another joint battery factory.
Volkswagen Group is the largest shareholder in the Gotion subsidiary, which already has a factory in Germany. It has also announced a new factory in Slovakia in partnership with Slovak startup InoBat. A ban on importing electric vehicles containing components from these companies into the U.S. market could seriously damage European car manufacturers, who currently rely on cheap Chinese imports and partnerships with firms whose activities should have long been outlawed even within the EU. This is particularly critical for Central and Eastern European countries, where the automotive industry is a crucial industrial sector.
