The bill package concerns China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Courtesy | Twitter
State Rep. Andrew Fink, R-Hillsdale, and other Michigan House Republicans unveiled a package of bills last week aimed at protecting the state from foreign influence, including a ban on government devices using apps from blacklisted countries.
The set of nine bills, which legislators introduced Sept. 28, targets nations on a federal “foreign countries of concern” watchlist, including China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
The proposed legislation would block some foreign apps from government devices, prohibit the listed foreign actors from buying land near military bases and critical infrastructure, and prevent the state government from awarding business incentives — subsidies and tax breaks — to blacklisted countries.
Fink highlighted security threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party in a press release last week.
“The CCP’s authoritarian governance, human rights abuses, unfair economic practices, national security threats, disinformation campaigns, and lack of reciprocity all warrant caution,” Fink said. “Every legislator in this group of bill sponsors offers a unique professional experience related to the issues at hand: veterans, a farmer, a health care worker, a teacher, and more.”
All bills in the package were referred to the Committee on Government Operations last week. State Sen. Joe Bellino, R-Monroe, told The Collegian that while he thinks the bills have full support among the GOP caucus, the package will be “dead on arrival” in the Democrat-controlled legislature.
“Unless the governor moves away from the country and a couple of Democrats in the House and Senate disappear,” Bellino said, “it won’t be brought up here.”
Fink told The Collegian the legislation’s chance of receiving consideration remains to be seen.
“It would be a change in policy from the way current leadership has done things, so it may well be uphill,” Fink said.
Mike Johnston, vice president of governmental affairs for the Michigan Manufacturers Association, said he thinks the proposed regulation of international commerce is not the job of the state government.
“This is the role of the federal government, not the state government,” Johnston said. “State government is pretty ill-equipped to analyze all of the things that people would want to analyze in terms of national security. Let’s leave what is constitutionally appropriate and practically appropriate in terms of resources to the federal government.”
The package comes as local and state officials raise concerns about two electric vehicle battery plants with Chinese ties. Gotion Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of China-based Gotion High-Tech Co., plans to build a $2.4 billion electric vehicle battery plant near Big Rapids. The company has received more than $700 million in state and local incentives, including a 30-year, $540 million tax break.
Fink tried to block the state incentives, The Collegian reported in March. The project faces scrutiny from local, state, and federal officials due to its board members’ ties to the Chinese government and CCP.
According to shareholder communications compiled by Big Rapids Township, Gotion High Tech CEO Li Zhen was a delegate to the Municipal People’s Congress and to the Provincial Committee of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a political advisory body for the CCP.
Former intelligence official Bill Evanina told Congress in a July hearing that the factory will “100 percent” bring spies to the United States.
Another project in Marshall involving Ford and another Chinese battery manufacturer, CATL, has also drawn scrutiny. Ford paused construction on the plant last month amid the United Auto Workers strike and a Congressional probe into CATL’s ties to forced labor in China.
U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., heads the select Congressional committee investigating the Ford-CATL deal. He said in a press release that states are “on the front lines of our New Cold War” with the CCP.
“I commend Michigan legislators for taking seriously the issue of foreign land purchases near national security sites,” Gallagher said, “including by closing the loopholes in federal regulations that have allowed purchases as close as one mile from our most sensitive military sites, as well as continuing the momentum against TikTok to codify bans on state government devices.”
