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According to published reports, President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee accepted a $1 million donation from Gotion Inc., the Chinese manufacturer that soon will open its lithium battery factory plant in Manteno.
The Chicago Tribune reported that Gotion made the $1 million donation Jan. 8, and it was only a fraction of the $240 million that the committee received.
The contribution and the Trump committee’s willingness to accept it comes under scrutiny despite the president and other Republicans being critical of the lithium battery plant because they argue it has links to the Chinese Communist Party – a criticism that Gov. JB Pritzker has dismissed, according to the Tribune story.
Pritzker called it “ironic” that an electric-vehicle battery company that his administration helped bring to Illinois to build a $2 billion plant donated to the inaugural committee for Trump, a vocal opponent of the governor who has criticized Gotion for its ties to the Chinese Communist Party, according to the story.
Pritzker stopped short of criticizing Gotion for the donation.
“We don’t make political decisions for companies in Illinois or anywhere else. They make those decisions on their own,” Pritzker said Tuesday at an event in Jacksonville, according to the Tribune story. “I think it’s ironic – perhaps there are other words to use – that there were people who criticized us bringing 2,600 jobs and billions of dollars of investment to the state of Illinois by this company, and yet those same people are supporters of the president who has accepted a $1 million contribution from them.”
The story added that attempts to get comments from the inaugural committee and from Gotion were unsuccessful.
According to the Tribune story, “Republicans have cited the corporate bylaws of Gotion’s parent firm requiring Gotion to ‘carry out party activities in accordance with the Constitution’ of the Chinese Communist Party. Such language is standard for Chinese corporations under the laws of their country.”
Gotion Inc. is a Fremont, California-based subsidiary of Gotion High-Tech in China, which is about 30% owned by Germany’s Volkswagen.
The story on Gotion’s contribution to the Trump committee was first reported Monday by the Detroit News. Gotion’s planned factory in Michigan, north of Grand Rapids, has stalled because of legal issues.