Above: John James inside his company’s Michigan warehouse, where a Chinese flag hangs in the background (Cox campaign backgrounder)
Former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox went on offense Tuesday, holding a press conference challenging Congressman John James over his family company’s business ties to communist China, while rolling out a new ad and a website documenting what the Cox campaign calls “The Record” of James profiting from the very country he attacks on the campaign trail.
The full press conference was streamed live by The Midwesterner and can be viewed here.
The new 30-second spot, “Put Michigan First,” anchors the campaign’s new website, JamesMadeInChina.com.
“Places like this used to be filled with the people, the industry that made Michigan work,” Cox says in the ad. “But politicians like John James, whose company outsourced Michigan jobs and made a fortune partnering with the communist Chinese government, sold us out.”
“If we want to bring jobs and industry back to Michigan, fix our schools and eliminate the income tax, we need a governor who will stand with President Trump to put Michigan first,” Cox continues.
The website lays out the contrast bluntly: “John James calls China the enemy. His company calls China the customer.”
The receipts are extensive. According to a backgrounder distributed at Tuesday’s press conference, customs and trade records show nearly 1,000 shipments from China tied to James’ company since 2022, worth an estimated $1.25 billion, almost one shipment per day (ImportGenius). The itemized list reads like an auto supplier directory of the People’s Republic: wheels from Zhejiang Jingu, suspension knuckles from Bethel Automotive Safety Systems, lithium-ion battery packs from SAIC General Motors, door latches from Magna Closures in Kunshan.
The paper trail runs right up to Memorial Day. While Michigan families were honoring the fallen, two shipments of Chinese-made wheels worth an estimated $2.1 million were arriving for James’ company, according to bills of lading cited by the campaign. The shipments landed May 25, 2026, bound for the Renaissance Global Logistics warehouse in Wixom.
Most damaging may be the company James keeps. The backgrounder details a decade-long business relationship between Renaissance Global Logistics, the James family logistics firm, and Changan Automobile, which the Pentagon designated a “Chinese military company” while it was a subsidiary of China South Industries Group, a state-owned defense contractor that builds weapons and munitions for the People’s Liberation Army (Pentagon 1260H list). The campaign counts 25 shipments between James’ company and the Pentagon-designated firm.
Then there is the tariff problem. James has praised President Trump’s tariffs as “leveling the playing field” and voted to support them. Meanwhile, his company operates a Foreign Trade Zone in Romulus, where imported Chinese goods can be parked while companies defer or reduce the very tariffs James champions (International Trade Administration). James Group also joined a 2012 state trade trip through six Chinese cities to deepen its business relationships there (Gov. Rick Snyder press release, September 19, 2012).
And then there is the flag. In footage James shot of himself inside his company’s Michigan warehouse, the flag of the People’s Republic of China hangs from the rafters.
James has given the Cox campaign plenty to work with. “Financing the Chinese Communist Party only emboldens their quest for power and puts our nation at risk,” the congressman said in April 2023 (james.house.gov). In January 2025 he told constituents his “marching orders” were to “help bring our jobs back from Mexico and China” (james.house.gov).
The China issue is not new for James. During his 2020 Senate run, The Daily Beast reported that his company coordinated shipments to assembly plants including facilities tied to Changan Ford, a joint venture with a Chinese state-owned automaker operating under a defense conglomerate linked to the CCP and the People’s Liberation Army (The Daily Beast, July 30, 2020). But Cox has now made it the defining argument of the primary.
“You don’t get to run on America First when your business depends on China. Michigan workers see right through that,” Cox said earlier this year.
The attack lands in what is now a three-way race. A Mitchell Research & Communications poll conducted for MIRS June 11-13 showed James at 28 percent, Cox at 27 percent, and businessman Perry Johnson at 23 percent, all within the poll’s margin of error, with 18 percent still undecided (Michigan News Source). An April Emerson College/WOOD-TV survey put Johnson ahead of James outright, 21 percent to 20 percent (WOOD TV), and a Conservative Intel analysis in May found Johnson polling strongest against Democrat Jocelyn Benson in November (Conservative Intel). James led the field by 30 points before Johnson poured more than $15 million into advertising, pollster Steve Mitchell noted. “This is a brand-new race,” Mitchell said. “Cox seems to have real momentum.”
The three men share a stage for the first time Wednesday night in a Fox 2 Detroit debate, then meet again Thursday in Grand Rapids for a WOOD TV debate at 7 p.m., four weeks before the August 4 primary. Expect China to come up in both. The question for Michigan Republicans is whether James can keep calling China the enemy while his family business keeps calling it the customer.
