We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

A Chinese company in Cedar Springs is putting its home country above its host country, flying a communist Chinese flag in alleged violation of federal law.

Garret O’Boyle, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and FBI whistleblower, posted an image to X of three flags flying outside of J-Star Motion in Cedar Springs on Thursday.

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today – $1 Trial

“Why is @GovWhitmer allowing J-Star Motion in Cedar Springs, MI, to fly the communist China flag above the American flag?” O’Boyle wrote. “This is a violation of federal law.”

The picture clearly shows the Chinese flag on the center of three poles, well above the American flag and another that’s illegible. O’Boyle included in his post 4 U.S. Code § 7(c), which makes it clear it’s illegal to fly another flag above the U.S. flag.

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today – $1 Trial

“No other flag or pennant should be placed above or, if on the same level, to the right of the flag of the United States of America, except during church services conducted by naval chaplains at sea, when the church pennant may be flown above the flag during church services for the personnel of the Navy. No person shall display the flag of the United Nations or any other national or international flag equal, above, or in a position of superior prominence or honor to, or in place of, the flag of the United States at any place within the United States or any Territory or possession thereof,” the law reads.

A local delivery driver, who served in the infantry alongside O’Boyle, told The Midwesterner he took the photo in the post while making a delivery to J-Star Motion recently, and forwarded it to O’Boyle. The driver did not want to be identified, for fear the exposure could cost him his job.

“I noticed it in one of my deliveries,” he said. “I talked with some employees. I brought it to their attention how disrespectful it was.”

“One of the employees says it’s par for the course here with Chinese leadership at J-Star Motion,” he said. “I just thought it was very disrespectful and I was pretty sure it’s against the law.”

Corporate filings with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs lists the president of J-Star Motion as Xiaoxiang Zhang, with an address in Garden Grove, Calif. Bearnard Zahm is listed as the treasurer and secretary, with the company’s address on Woodlawn Hills Drive in Cedar Springs.

J-Star Motion specializes in “manufacturing height adjustable table bases,” according to the company’s 2023 annual report.

Messages The Midwesterner left with J-Star Motion and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office were not immediately returned on Friday.

The delivery driver who discovered the situation told The Midwesterner he believes the flags in Cedar Springs are relevant to broader concerns about Chinese influence in Michigan, and a planned electric vehicle battery component plant in Mecosta County with ties to the Chinese Communist Party that’s strongly opposed by locals and Republicans.

More from TheMidwesterner.news

“I’m actually from the Big Rapids area and that’s one reason of many they’re trying to keep these companies out,” he said. “It’s 30 minutes down the road.”

CCP-linked Gotion, Inc. landed $715 million in taxpayer funded incentives for the Mecosta County plant through secret negotiations with the Whitmer administration and select lawmakers in 2022, and the project has been embroiled in controversy ever since.

Gotion, which promises to create 2,350 jobs at the planned $2.3 billion manufacturing facility, remains entangled in legal wrangling with Green Charter Township over the deal, which was initially approved by township officials who have since been recalled from office.

The lawsuit has revealed Gotion officials allegedly bribed local officials to approve the project, while U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and others have repeatedly called on Whitmer to nix the agreement.

The planned Gotion plant has also played into local and national politics.

President-elect Donald Trump announced in August he’s “100% OPPOSED” to the Gotion plant in a post to Truth Social.

“The Gotion plant would be very bad for the State and our Country,” he wrote. “It would put Michiganders under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing.”

Moolenaar and U.S. Rep. Darien LaHood, R-Ill., are leading the opposition to Gotion in Washington over the company’s close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and implications for national security, most recently introducing legislation in November to block Gotion from receiving federal tax credits.

In Mecosta County, four new county commissioners who took office last week were elected on opposition to the Gotion plant, which was supported by the county’s prior board majority.

Within minutes of taking office last week, the new board voted 5-2 to rescind Resolution 2023-04, which stated the prior commission’s support for Gotion, citing “new information and developments … concerning the project and its ownership structure with direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party CCP and broader issues of foreign investment.”

“When 92% of the Mecosta County residents opposed the Chinese battery plant in our community, the board of commissioners should have listened,” newly elected board Chairman Chris Zimmerman said. “When our congressman says there are security concerns with China in our community, the board of commissioners should have reversed their approval of the project.”