In September 2022, details of a Chinese-owned electric vehicle battery manufacturer planning to build a sprawling plant near Big Rapids emerged in a bucolic rural northern Michigan community of pastureland and thick forests that straddles the dividing line of "up north."
Michiganians of the Year
The development spurred local real estate agent Lori Brock on the path to community activism as she sought a redress of grievances against her local government in opposition to both the development of heavy industry and investment by a company whose parent company in China aligns with the Chinese Communist Party.
The existence of Gotion Inc.'s battery plant project, first reported by The Detroit News on Sept. 20, 2022, was followed six days later by a vote of three Mecosta County governing boards to give the company a 30-year tax break on a $2.4 billion investment. Soon after, state economic development officials pledged up to $175 million in taxpayer-funded incentives to help subsidize as many as 2,350 jobs.
The abrupt and swift movement to close the deal and award Gotion tax breaks was shrouded in non-disclosure agreements signed by a cadre of elected officials or their staffers for a project code-named "Project Elephant."
Brock, who owns a horse farm about a half-mile from the planned battery plant site, found the manner in which the project was fast-tracked without community input an affront to longtime residents like herself.
“Normally when a big factory goes into your community, people seem to know about it," Brock said. "Well, we didn’t know anything.”
Brock became the public face of the opposition, helping to pack hundreds of residents into "very volatile" meetings of the Green Township board of trustees. After feeling like the board was not listening following its swift approval of the project, Brock and her allies launched a recall campaign. It prevailed in November, leading to the ouster of all five members of the Green Township board and the supervisor in neighboring Big Rapids Township, which is no longer in the planned footprint of the plan.
"I didn't want the fight," Brock said. "But when the fight was brought to my neighborhood, I had to fight. ... You can't just turn a blind eye and hope someone else will do it for you. You have to stand up."
Brock, 58, owns Rivertown Real Estate in Big Rapids. On her 150-acre farm along 19 Mile in Green Township, she breeds and raises Friesians, a Dutch performing horse that originates from Friesland, a province of the Netherlands.
Brock's advocacy has created detractors in the Big Rapids area, particularly among supporters of the Gotion project who see it as transformational for any area starved of new investment and jobs.
“You have a group here that’s willing to say anything, do anything. The facts are not an issue,”said Jim Chapman, the former Green Township supervisor who was booted from office through Brock's campaign.
Michiganians: Lori Brock
Michiganians: Lori Brock
Brock said her public opposition to the Gotion battery plant project made her the subject of a "total slam campaign" to discredit her, including negative online reviews about her business.
But she felt emboldened by the attacks.
“What I found is the more they come after me, the stronger I get,” Brock said. “It doesn’t hurt me anymore. The words don’t hurt. I know that when they come after me, I’m doing the right thing, and I know I’m getting to them, and we’re gaining momentum.”
Brock and other activists have taken their opposition of Chinese business investments in the U.S. on the road. They are also opposing plans such as the Ford Motor Co. battery plant project in Marshall, where the Dearborn automaker is licensing EV battery technology from China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., or CATL — the world's leading LFP battery maker.
She has been advising residents on how to fight Gotion in Manteno, Illinois, where the battery maker plans to construct a $2 billion gigafactory for EV battery construction.
“They’re all having problems with communism and companies coming in with the same NDAs — it’s the same playbook," Brock said. "It's all done in secrecy, and then all of a sudden, they announce it when they're ready to break ground."
I didn't want the fight. But when the fight was brought to my neighborhood, I had to fight. ... You can't just turn a blind eye and hope someone else will do it for you. You have to stand up.
Lori Brock
Age: 58
Occupation: Realtor and horse farmer
Education: Cass City High School
Family: Daughters Hailey and Hanna
Why honored: Led a campaign to recall her township board in Mecosta County over the construction of a Gotion electric vehicle parts plant
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