Virginia Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin expressed as part of a recent interview held this past week that members of the communist party from China were attempting to make use of a “trojan horse” plan to gain access to U.S. taxpayer benefits.
Youngkin issued the statements as part of a segment of “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Baritromo, a host for Fox News, while discussing his choice to reject a multi-billion dollar electric car factory from Ford which was planned to be set up in his state due to the company have open connections to China.
Youngkin stated that the plant would have been worked by Contemporary Amperex Technology, a China-based company, and would have just been an obvious “trojan horse structure to gain access to taxpayer incentives” legislation that Democrats have previously passed which allows the issuing of credits to consumers for the buying of 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,” stated Youngkin. “This should be an American supply chain that’s trusted, not one that’s outsourced to the Chinese Communist Party.”
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Youngkin quickly rejected the $3.5 billion push from Ford to get permission to set up the factory this past month. The plant, which was thought to be built in Pittsylvania County in the southwestern part of Old Dominion, would have created lithium iron phosphate batteries that would be utilized in the creation of electric cars and would have employed close to 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,” stated Youngkin this past 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.”
Democratic state legislators put Youngkin on blast for tossing out the deal and hurled accusations at the greenhorn governor of going against China to solely push his ambitions for the White House. Youngkin has not yet indicated that he is thinking of a 2024 bid for the White House, but the massive 2021 win in the key blue state ended up bringing about national attention.
“To deny [people in the community] jobs because you’re in last place in Republican presidential primaries [is] gubernatorial malpractice,” exclaimed Sen. Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax) in a statement to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “I mean, this is clearly just obvious to me that the governor’s in some kind of out-China-bashing-contest with [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis and Governor Greg Abbott out of Texas.”
