Youngkin said the plant would have been operated by China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology and would have been a “trojan horse structure to gain access to taxpayer incentives” legislation that Democrats passed which gives credits to consumers for purchasing electric vehicles.
“This is using taxpayer money to further enrich a Chinese company at the expense of America. It’s just not happening in Virginia,” Youngkin said. “This should be an American supply chain that’s trusted, not one that’s outsourced to the Chinese Communist Party.”
Youngkin
rejected Ford’s $3.5 billion push for the factory last month. The plant, which was under consideration for Pittsylvania County in the southwestern part of Old Dominion, would have made lithium iron phosphate batteries for electric vehicles and employed as many as 2,500 workers.
“The consortium of Ford and CATL were hoping to build a plant, as reported and confirmed by Ford, where Ford would build the building, but a company that is majorly influenced by the Chinese Communist Party was going to operate the plant, and the employees were going to work for the Chinese Communist Party controlled company,” Youngkin said last month. “They were going to use that in order to try to tap into taxpayer benefits at state level as well as the federal level that were specifically designated for non-Chinese communist party entities.” Youngkin told reporters he was uncomfortable with a CCP-connected company benefiting from Virginia tax dollars, adding that he felt the deal’s structure was “a bit deceptive.”