Freedom Caucus Share Concerns Over Manteno Battery Plant Project

Area legislators who are part of the Illinois Freedom Caucus Monday asked for answers to concerns with a Chinese company building a battery plant in Manteno.

Gotion High-Tech Company plans to build a $2 billion plant that is to create 2,600 jobs. The incentives package involves $7.5 billion in federal tax credits over five years and the State of Illinois has pledged $536 million in subsidies for the project.

St. Rep. Brad Halbrook of Shelbyville said it defies common sense to make a deal with a company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party without requiring any kind of disclosures. Halbrook said China's human rights abuses make them a "bad faith partner in business deals".

St. Rep. Adam Niemerg of Dieterich said there should have been proper vetting before such a deal was completed, but argues that there was no such vetting process.

The legislators called for legislation to ban the use of public funds in investments or institutions tied to the Chinese Communist Party or the People's Republic of China; to ban government officials and employees from having Tik Tok accounts; and to prohibit China from buying farmland in the United States.

St. Rep. Blaine Wilhour of Beecher City said, "JB Pritzker signed a law divesting Illinois from Russia because of the war in Ukraine. If we are condemning Russia, how can we not have the same policies in regard to the CCP?"