00:00mind is national security. Gauchan did not respond to VOA's request for comment.
00:06Gauchan was founded in China and its U.S. subsidiary is headquartered in California.
00:11Its board members hail from China, the U.S. and Germany. Vice President of North American
00:17Manufacturing Chuck Thielen said his company is being singled out. Something made someone decide
00:24Gauchan's a scapegoat when we have very similar business practices to many companies already here.
00:30Chinese investment in the U.S. has been a talking point in this year's presidential election.
00:35Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance are accusing
00:40Democrats of using taxpayer money to pay China to set up shop in the U.S.
00:46China is buying up our technology. They're buying up food supplies. They're buying up our farmland.
00:54According to the New York Times, Gauchan received $800 million in subsidies from
00:59Michigan's strategic fund and may be eligible for Inflation Reduction Act tax credits.
01:05Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and other Democrats contend that incentives to companies
01:11like Gauchan help keep business in the state rather than overseas. In May, Whitmer said,
01:17we cannot let Chinese companies be the only ones innovating around electric vehicles
01:23because then they will eat our lunch the way we're seeing happen in Europe.
01:27Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris also addressed U.S.-China competition in her
01:33keynote speech to the Democratic National Convention. I will make sure that we lead the world
01:43into the future on space and artificial intelligence that America, not China,
01:48wins the competition for the 21st century. Some residents here say the U.S.-China competition
01:55is coloring the debate. Well, the resistance comes from the national issue that's made everything
02:02kind of anti-Chinese. And the Gauchan issue has put Big Rapids on the campaign map,
02:08with Vance stopping here in August. Keller Yu, VOA News, Big Rapids, Michigan.
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