(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) The Biden administration gave an $850 million conditional loan to a company called KORE Power so that it would build a battery production plant in Arizona and the United States’ reliance on China’s batteries would be decreased, even though the company itself is owned by the communist regime.
The administration presented the project as a way to “strengthen the domestic battery supply chain” and combat China’s grip on the global market. However, as it was revealed through the court documents and corporate disclosure filings that were obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, KORE, with its Idaho headquarters and a small staff of around 150 employees, has extensive roots in China.
KORE is 14% co-owned by Do-Fluoride New Materials (DFD), a Chinese battery manufacturer led by Chinese Communist Party official Li Shijiang, the records revealed.
In addition to that, one of KORE’s directors is Li Shijiang’s daughter, Li Lingyun, who also serves as vice chair of DFD and as vice president of China’s state-supervised Patent Protection Association, the news source wrote.
KORE disclosed in a November court filing that DFD New Energy, a China-based subsidiary of Do-Fluoride New Materials, will help it build the Arizona battery plant.
“The facility is under construction at present and DFD New Energy will assist in the buildout,” KORE’s CEO Lindsay Gorrill said.
DFD will help KORE build the Arizona facility by providing intellectual property, research and development and engineering capabilities, according to the Department of Energy.
The department also said that it conducted “extensive due diligence” on the arrangement while adding that KORE has been working to reduce its Chinese ownership, to eventually become completely independent of Chinese technology, the news source said.
“For a program that was supposed to decrease America’s reliance on China, this is incredibly counterproductive. It’s outrageous that a company partly owned by a Chinese company with ties to the CCP would be rewarded with taxpayer money,” Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of the watchdog group Americans for Public Trust, said.
