Kankakee Times

Amanda Piker is the originator of the No Gotion In Illinois Facebook page that has led to a growing movement to prevent the proposed Gotion lithium ion car battery plant from opening in Manteno.

Piker has raised her children in Manteno and is worried about what will happen to the community if the Chinese Community Party-linked plant opens in the area.

She was concerned enough that she led the charge to protest when Gov. J.B. Pritzker dropped into town to announce the plant.

“We organized a protest,” Piker told Kankakee Times.

“The day of the announcement we just did in 24 hours there [were] 20-25 of us that were there at the Kmart facility when Pritzker came in with his team to make the official announcement, along with all of the politicians in our area.”

She said five-term Manteno Mayor Timothy Nugent halted questioning on the plant in Manteno’s past board meeting. Others have said Nugent and Manteno’s council members have signed a non-disclosure agreement and are not allowed to openly discuss Manteno’s involvement in the plant.

“Our mayor, he stated in the last board meeting – we were all aware, so people showed up and spoke for public comment – ‘no questions’ he said in the beginning. ’I’m not answering any questions,’” Piker said.

Piker said prior to the announcement by Pritzker only a few people in Manteno had heard about the proposed Gotion plant.

“So literally, we all found out about it a week before the announcement was officially made,” she said. “Everything was kept quiet. Not many people. Nothing. Nobody knew anything. The name of the company was accidentally, released. I heard it word of mouth. So I started digging and I immediately found the Michigan people who were fighting Gotion in Great Rapids area.”

Piker said there are not many supporters for the Gotion plant in Manteno.

“Pretty much our entire town is against it. I don’t really know of many that are for it and other than the people that support the mayor,” Piker told Kankakee Times.

As a result, the group has hired an attorney to help fight against the plant.

She said the response from the community was encouraging in a phone call with Minneapolis-based attorney Robby Dube who is representing similar citizen groups fighting against the Gotion plant planned for Michigan and North Dakota.

“If there gives you any idea the night that we had the attorney call, which was on Monday afterwards, there was a community meeting of participants and just concerned citizens and we raised over $16,000 within just a few hours in order to hire the attorneys who are representing North Dakota and Michigan,” she said.

Piker said she welcomes the recent attention Congress has paid to the plant.

The planned Manteno Gotion plant was recently noted in a letter written by U.S. Senator Marco Rubio and U.S. Representative John Moolenaar calling for a Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) review of Gotion, Inc. due to its CCP ties and potential access to green-energy tax breaks.

They expressed concerns about the extent of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) control over Gotion and its impact on critical infrastructure decisions in the U.S., particularly within the state of Illinois.

“The extent of the CCP’s control over Guoxuan (Gotion) is explicitly mentioned in the company’s corporate by-laws, which require the company ‘to carry out Party activities in accordance with the Constitution of the [Chinese Communist Party],’” the letter reads.

“In 2021, Guoxuan High-Tech hosted several company retreats where employees were mandated to recite a pledge of loyalty to the Party, including to ‘fight for communism.’ This is concerning, no less because the Biden Administration itself has described the PRC in its 2022 National Security Strategy as the “only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it,” and that ‘Beijing frequently uses its economic power to coerce countries.’ The CCP’s control over Guoxuan High-Tech is no exception to the Party’s strategy to exert its influence in the United States.”

The No Gotion In Illinois Facebook page regularly shares information on the plant.

One of the group’s recent posts shows a smiling State Sen. Patrick Joyce (D-Essex) shaking hands with a Chinese Gotion executive.

“This is a major win for Kankakee County! Looking forward to all of the good-paying jobs coming to the area in the future,” a Joyce screenshot of a social media post from Joyce reads.

The Illinois Freedom Caucus, along with local residents and supporters, is set to host a press conference on Oct. 2 to voice opposition to the battery plant planned for Manteno.

This event aims to address concerns raised by Manteno residents, including zoning regulations, property taxes, healthcare access, and potential national security implications of the Chinese company’s generous subsidies through federal tax credits, amid increasing tensions between the U.S. and China.