100 Percent Exclusive – Lori Brock is a BRAVE single mom and a realtor in Green Twp, MI, a small farming, hunting, and fishing community with a population of about 6,500 people in northwestern Michigan. Lori also owns approximately 150 acres where she raises Friesian horses, donkeys, chickens, goats, and a potbelly pig on her ranch next door to several pieces of property that have been purchased with Michigan taxpayer dollars to build a Chinese battery company.
When Lori was alerted about the plans to build a Chinese battery factory in her small community, she began to investigate Gotion, a Chinese company with plans to build a lithium battery company in her small community, and what she found was alarming.
The battery plant that Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer is touting as an economic boon and is pushing on the small farm and outdoors community is located on the third largest watershed in Michigan. Curiously, leftist environmental groups, who are normally very vocal about the risks associated with potentially toxic factories for both land and water, have remained silent on the risks local residents and citizens in the state of Michigan face if the plans to construct this CHINA-owned battery plant are allowed to move forward.
The Muskegon River, which runs next to Lori’s property, is popular with kayakers and tubers in the summer months in Green Twp. and Big Rapids, MI. Residents are concerned about the impact the Gotion battery plant will have on the water in their communities, where they plan to draw more water than the Ice Water bottling company, which is located about 15 miles from the proposed battery site.
In addition to the national security risks of having a foreign company that has pledged its allegiance to a Communist country in their local community, the largest National Guard training facility in America is less than 100 miles away. Last summer, Taiwanese troops took part in the Northern Strike exercise led by the Michigan National Guard. The annual two-week exercise was conducted in August at Camp Grayling, just days after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the democratically-governed territory, sparking an angry reaction from China, including a military show of force around the island.
By standing up to top political thugs in Lansing, Lori Brock has put a target on her back. She recently hosted a rally on her property that attracted over 1,000 individuals who traveled from as far away as Ohio, Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and Detroit. Ms. Brock told us she was stunned at how many people showed up and how many of them stayed to hear the speakers, which included environmental experts and Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, the former Chair of the US House Intelligence Committee, who all warned of the dangers of allowing the Gotion Battery Plant to be built in their community.
The following Monday, Lori received a warning from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development that was allegedly filed with the Soros-funded SOS Jocelyn Benson’s office, citing issues with the condition of Lori’s farm.
Two separate news crews were asked by Lori to be on her farm with cameras to film the so-called investigation. “I don’t trust them,” she told us, adding that she was even concerned the representative from the government agency tasked with investigating her “complaint” might try to slip something in her pond that would be used as a reason to shut down her farm, adding that in the meantime, it could contaminate the water her animals drink. The representative of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development told Lori that she was closing the investigation and explained that she was embarrassed to be investigating her farm as it was immaculate.
Here’s a photo of the letter Lori received. When we asked to see the complaint, she had to fish it out of the garbage where it had been filed by Lori, who takes great pride in the cleanliness of her establishment.
Ms. Brock told us that it’s not about the money for her and for many of her neighbors, explaining that she could probably sell her property to the Chinese battery plant for around $30 million. Despite the best efforts of the local government, including the Green Twp. Supervisor Jim Chapman, who she calls a “liar,” while citing a number of lies that he’s told to her and local citizens, including about stats in a survey he reportedly told the MI Senate Appropriations Committee he took, where the Green Twp Supervisor claimed that 99% of local citizens he spoke with were in agreement with building the Chinese battery plant in Green Twp. When pressed by Lori about how the survey was conducted, Jim Chapman reportedly admitted he only spoke with 6 people. Paperwork has been filed by Green Twp. residents to recall the entire board, and Lori told us she is confident they will all be recalled and replaced by individuals who represent the will of the majority of the residents.
Lori says she will not be bullied by Green Twp. Supervisor Jim Chapman, Gotion North American Vice President of Operations Chuck Thelan, Governor Whitmer, or anyone else in government into changing her mind.
In an informational meeting, Gotion Global Vice President Chuck Thelen reportedly also said the company has plans to draw 715,000 gallons of groundwater per day from a neighboring Big Rapids Charter Township well.
Ms. Brock told us about a woman in her community who had to call her on a “burner phone” because of the NDA she was forced to sign. The neighbor explained to Lori that although she didn’t want to sell the home that she loves, her decision to sell for four times the value of her property was made because of the threats about noise and “lithium dust,” which would be a constant factor if she stayed in her home and the factory was built around it.
Lori explained that during a radio interview, she called out Gotion’s North American VP Chuck Thelan for pretending Gotion was not tied to Communist China when in fact, their company by-laws state they must “carry out Party activities in accordance with the Constitution of the Communist Party of China.” Lori claims they also discovered two of the owners of Gotion are also part of Communist China’s government.
Article 115 in the ‘Articles of Association” of Gotion High-tech Co.Ltd. states:
“THE PARTY COMMITTEE OF THE COMPANY SHALL PERFORM ITS DUTIES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA AND OTHER PARTY REGULATIONS.”
Watch Lori tell her incredible story here:
On February 17, 2023, US Congressman John Molenar (R-MI), Chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, wrote a letter to US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen asking for an expeditious CFIUS review of “large financial investments made in the state of Michigan, particularly those by Chinese companies and their subsidiaries. According to Lori Brock, the requested review has not yet been completed.
On April 20, Big Rapids and Green Twp. MI residents appeared before the MI Senate Appropriations Committee to express their frustration with the rush to push the Gotion battery company project on local citizens with no input from them. After the large group of citizens who would be most affected by the decision to place a Chinese battery plant in their communities made their objections known to the MI legislatures, the lawmakers, led by the Democrat Chair, Senator Sarah Anthony, gave her final approval on the vote to give Gotion an additional $175 million from MI taxpayers.
So far, in tax incentives and appropriations, the MI Legislature has gifted Gotion with an astounding $990 million.
On Tuesday, Gotion’s Chuck Thelan announced that they are temporarily delaying a rezoning from agriculture use to industrial use application in Green Charter Township “in order to focus entirely on getting this important project started.”
“Temporarily delaying the rezoning application also gives us the time needed to continue to communicate with the local community and answer the many questions that have been raised,” Thelen said. He added, “We’re confident that when the facts are presented, we can effectively resolve these questions and show the tremendous benefit to the community.”
We were blessed by a visit from a couple of Lori’s rescue animals as we arrived on her ranch. Her goat (in the background) likes to chew on tires, and her rescued donkey loves people so much that she actually stuck her head into the driver’s side window of my vehicle to get some attention.