Illinois Residents Sue to Keep out EV Battery Company With CCP Ties

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Manteno Mayor Timothy Nugent were among officials who hailed a deal to bring the company into the town.

A yard sign in Manteno, Ill., on Dec. 13, 2023. Many locals are voicing opposition to a Chinese Communist Party-linked battery plant, Gotion, that could come to town. The Epoch Times/Nathan Worcester

Residents of a village in Illinois have filed a lawsuit to keep out the American subsidiary of Gotion High-Tech, a battery company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that currently stands to gain from half a billion dollars in state incentives along with support from other units of government.

“Today, the people of Manteno have spoken. We do not want this plant in our town,” Amanda Piker, a local activist with Concerned Citizens of Manteno, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, told The Epoch Times.