Gavin Bade

And so they would say, look, we're just better at making glass than these other older plants, and that's why we're competitive.

Now, that's maybe not the whole story from the standpoint of the government and from their competitors like Vitro, right?

There are also accusations of unfair trade and labor practices.

So there's this big federal investigation into alleged human trafficking and illegal immigration to feed workers into this plant.

The Fuyao plant was actually raided in July 2024 by DHS, by the FBI and other agencies.

This is under the Biden administration.

And they alleged that the owners of this factory and others created a

an intricate web of affiliates that were all aimed at creating a pipeline for illegal immigration and illegal labor to come to this plant.

And then on top of that, you have concerns that, well, maybe this plant is perhaps getting subsidies from the Chinese government.

Perhaps they're getting cheap financing from Chinese state banks.

Perhaps they're playing a little bit of a different economic game from the companies that have been established in the U.S.

for a long time.

Fuyao says that, you know, none of these allegations of unfair labor practices or trade practices are legitimate.

They say that all of their employees were legal to work in the U.S.

It was all from their suppliers and they say they're not the target of the investigation.

The Chinese embassy says Chinese companies make investments and employ a lot of people in the U.S.

So it's also worth mentioning that Fuyao, of course, employs a lot of people in Ohio.

And if you listen to business leaders there, they really welcome their presence.

We could.

Foreign direct investment from China into the US really fell off a cliff since 2018.