Joseph Cella served as U.S. Ambassador to Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga, and Tuvalu from 2019 to 2021. He's the founder and principal of the Pontifex Group, founder of the National Catholic prayer breakfast, and cofounder of the Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group.

Federal Newswire: How did your experiences as an Ambassador overseas spark concerns about what's going on in your home state of Michigan?

Cella: While serving in the Indo-Pacific, [I had a] front row seat to PRC and CCP malign influence operations and subnational incursions. They're on the hunt 16 time zones away and here in the Eastern Time zone.

Federal Newswire: What warning signs did you see in Michigan?

Cella: Two things converged at the beginning of last year. First, in North Dakota, there was an effort by the third largest food additive processor in China by the name of Fufeng to make some inroads there, with bipartisan support. They purchased 300 acres to build a wet corn milling plant. 

The problem with that is that it was 12 miles from the door of Grand Forks Air Force Base, which is doing sensitive, classified, mission-critical work. Soon enough it will be getting more important as the years go on. 

It took the engagement of Senators Rubio and then the home state Senators of Cramer and Hoeven to appeal for a serious review. Fortunately, Senators Cramer and Hoeven stayed on it, met with the Air Force, and killed the project, saying it would be a grave threat to our national security. 

The second flashpoint was Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia turned back a joint Ford-CATL deal, CATL being the acronym for Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited lithium ion battery. The manufacturer based in the PRC was deeply tied to the CCP, and he blocked it. Again, [there was] bipartisan support to get it in there, for a joint venture, and he called it a Trojan horse. Rightly so. 

He knew well enough the nature of the beast - that it was a subnational incursion and influence operation. He also saw the threat to not only our national security, but our economic security. 

The third element that really gave rise to organizing something in Michigan was an article that appeared in the Detroit News. It revealed that Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation for years had been operating under five- and ten-year binding nondisclosure agreements and kind of silly secret code names for economic development projects. It involved CATL, as well as Gotion, another PRC-based and CCP-tied lithium ion battery manufacturer.

The Detroit News reporter Beth Leblanc blew that wide open. Nobody had really heard of it. I called my former ambassadorial colleague, Peter Hoekstra (a former member of Congress and former House Intel chair). He graciously accepted the engagement to join me on the front lines of mobilizing people, educating and informing them. We launched the Michigan China Economic Security Review Group about 18 months ago to educate and inform Michigan citizens, stakeholders, and policy leaders about what subnational incursions are, what influence operations are, and how they're manifested in these deals that were never given the strict scrutiny, as directed by our national security and intelligence agencies.

Federal Newswire: Did the House Select Committee on the CCP serve as a model for the mission of what you’re doing?

Cella: I would say impersonation is the sincerest form of flattery. It speaks to the nature of their good work, and it speaks to the nature of us. It really is who we are and what we've been doing since early 2023 and continue to this day, and we'll be scaling soon enough beyond Michigan as well.

Federal Newswire: How are you operationalizing this mission?

Cella: We are volunteers. We've engaged with everyday citizens who have had these two massive projects coming to very small towns. Patriotic Americans of all partisan stripes engage. They see this threat, they ask questions. Some might not know what a subnational incursion or influence operation is, but they know that this will change their backyards they've known for generations. They don't like it when they learn more about the nature of the deal, the billions in taxpayer dollars that have gone into it, they particularly don't like it. 

It involves any number of engagements with the media by Ambassador Hoekstra and me, opinion articles on the state and national level, TV and radio interviews, and appearing at Senate or House hearings in Michigan when Michigan was advancing the funding for these deals. Also, showing up at township meetings, and conferring and strategizing with the grassroots people that live in these communities.

Federal Newswire: What specific issue are citizens most concerned about?

Cella: It's really a broad based coalition of people: Republicans, Democrats, some who place a greater concern on environmental matters and people who want our government to be better stewards of their taxpayer dollars, to those who are more tracking the China threat that is on our shores, and some are an amalgam of all of them.

Federal Newswire: How did the recent electoral recall related to this issue in Michigan come about?

Cella: In the Lower Peninsula, two plants are proposed for two areas. One is in the city of Marshall, and the other is in Big Rapids. With respect to the proposed deal for Gotion, there was a recall of the township supervisor in Big Rapids. 

He was operating under a non-disclosure agreement. He would not discuss anything with fellow township board members who were asking him questions about the deal. “What is this? Where are we going? Why are we doing it?” He would not divulge anything, because he was covered under the NDA. That is highly irregular, if you can't be accountable to a colleague who is also elected.

Federal Newswire: Should we have a policy of reciprocity with China?

Cella: We're plowing new earth here when it comes to China. I would say that what you see with these instances where China is involved is a lack of transparency and top authoritarian efficiency. I would say by their nature, they operate top-down, and heavy handed, and just get things done.

In fact, Secretary Anthony Blinken in a “Face the Nation” interview…said that there was really no distinction between business and the state, and we know the nature of the state of the CCP. You see vestiges of that, moving fast, moving in secret, and that is not how our Republic is meant to operate. 

Our intelligence agencies and national security agencies convened, in February of ‘22 with a group of bipartisan elected officials from the state and local level and business owners to say, “China is on the hunt.” 

They are going to use seemingly, ostensibly benign business deals, when in fact they're not. We need to subject them to strict scrutiny to ensure accountability, transparency and integrity. None of that happened in Michigan. 

In addition, Green Rapids Township had five of their seven board members recalled because of the same [type of] NDAs, selling their property to or attempting to sell their property to Gotion at hundreds of percent above market value, some say close to 1,000% market.

Federal Newswire: Are other states taking notice?

Cella: The most immediate connectivity happened in Illinois, where Gotion is putting up another plant. Apparently the supply chain runs from Morocco to Michigan to Illinois, and somehow they'll get the supplies and illicitly make money on that. 

But it's kind of a strange approach in any event. It's rural Mancino, Illinois–patriotic. Ambassador Hoekstra and I went down to a rally of about 500 people in this town square last summer. [It was] beautiful.They're mobilizing. They're in court. They have a citizens organization. 

We had contact with citizens in North Dakota [about] their success there. We've been in contact with citizens in Maine who are facing irregular illegal marijuana growing operations that seem to be entangled with the underworld triad, which is a PRC-based, CCP-tied, entity. 

A group in North Carolina has also mobilized to counter a threat. A lot of things are shrouded on that proposed deal through NDAs, and they're trying to extract some information. There's another entity in Ohio that was assumed to be facing a similar dynamic. There is another instance in Missouri that we've been engaged in. 

The thread running through all of this is that government and business officials have defied the direction of our national security and intelligence agencies. No strict scrutiny, no due diligence, no transparency, no integrity, no accountability. Then it's about two years later that citizens find something out or wake up. 

There are people firing flares. You see, individual congressmen engage, such as Darren LaHood in Illinois, to counter that Gotion project. Congressman Jason Smith in Missouri and others countering the PRC-based and CCP-tied push there.

Certainly appreciate the great work of AFPI and others that are intrepidly fighting the fight. So, there is no shortage of opportunities. We're soon to engage with another group out in California, where some mysterious buyers of farmland and land surrounding Travis Air Force Base are underway. Some very suspicious things are happening there that will be engaging soon enough.

Federal Newswire: Where can people keep up with the Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group?

Cella: We have a Twitter page that is @MCESRG. Stay tuned to that as we'll be scaling our work nationally here soon enough.