 [Free Beacon] Former intelligence official Bill Evanina told Congress Wednesday that a Chinese company trying to build a battery factory in Michigan will "100 percent" bring spies to the United States.
Evanina, who served as director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, was asked by Rep. John Moolenaar (R., Mich.) if it is "basically a guarantee that some of the people who come from China to work on this project will spy for the CCP." Evanina responded, "100 percent."
"There will be an effort by the Communist Party of China to infiltrate that capability via cyber, human, and hybrid methods," Evanina told the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party during a Wednesday hearing Wednesday. "Using businessmen, engineers, and what we call the non-traditional collectors, they will go over and above to implement their methods in that particular technology that’s in your district."
The project is one of two planned battery plants in Michigan that have come under scrutiny for CCP ties in the past year. Gotion Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of China-based Gotion High-Tech Co., is set to build a $2.4 billion electric vehicle battery plant near Big Rapids, Mich., and has received more than $700 million in state and local incentives. Another project in the southern part of the state involving Ford and another Chinese battery manufacturer, CATL, has drawn similar scrutiny. Federal lawmakers, including select committee chair Rep. Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.), are asking Ford for licensing documents and more information on the deal.
Federal regulators last month declined to review the Gotion project after state lawmakers gave final approval in April. Company board members have connections to the CCP, according to shareholder communications compiled by Big Rapids Township. 
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