Sen. Rubio Calls for Biden Admin to Expel China’s Influence Operations After Ford Pauses Its Chinese EV Project

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) speaks during a press conference in the U.S. Capitol in Washington on July 11, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

After Ford Motor Co. paused its controversial $3.5 billion project with a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) battery maker, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) wants the Biden administration to take a step further in expelling Chinese communist influence operations, which, in his view, use Chinese companies as tools.

On Sept. 25, Ford announced the halting of the EV battery plant involving China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL). “We’re pausing work, and we’re going to limit spending on construction at Marshall until we're confident about our ability to competitively run the plant,” Ford spokesman T.R. Reid told The Epoch Times via email.

CATL is a leader in the EV battery industry that has enjoyed annual subsidies of tens of billions of U.S. dollars from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The battery plant in Marshall, Michigan, initially scheduled for operation in 2026, would be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ford; CATL would provide battery technology, some equipment, and workers.

“CATL and Gotion shouldn’t be allowed to operate in the U.S. or benefit from American taxpayer subsidies,” Mr. Rubio said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times on Sept. 26, mentioning Gotion High-Tech Co., another Chinese EV battery company with facilities in progress in Michigan and Illinois. Michigan state has approved more than $600 million in incentives for the Gotion and Ford–CATL plants.

“These companies are not just economic competitors but tools of the Chinese Communist Party,” Mr. Rubio said. “Now is the time for the Biden administration to make clear that we will not tolerate communist China’s influence over American industry and public officials and will expel these influence operations from American soil.”

The top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee has been wary of the Ford–CATL deal since the beginning.

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On the day of Ford’s announcement in February, Mr. Rubio wrote a letter to the secretaries of Treasury, Energy, and Transportation asking for a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an interagency panel in charge of assessing national security risks of transactions involving foreign entities.

Given the strategic importance of the EV battery sector for the CCP and the Party's heavy subsidies supporting key players' rise to global dominance, Mr. Rubio called CATL a “PRC national champion” in his February statement, referring to the official name of the People’s Republic of China.

In early March, he introduced a bill to block Chinese companies’ access to EV-related tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act. Since then, many Republican lawmakers have sought to review Ford’s licensing agreement and discuss the national security risks with the company.

Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) speaks during an interfaith roundtable on the CCP's threat to religious freedom, in Washington on July 12, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

One of the leaders is Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chair of the House Select Committee on the CCP, a House panel established in January.

In June, he led a bipartisan delegation of the committee to Detroit and met with Ford CEO James Farley to learn how Congress could help the company compete in the global market without increasing its dependence on Chinese supply chains.

A month later, he and Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, sent a joint letter to Mr. Farley expressing concerns that the Ford–CATL deal would facilitate China’s global dominance in EV battery technology with U.S. taxpayers’ money and would increase the United States' reliance on Chinese critical raw materials. CATL having part of its supply chain in Xinjiang also raised a question about forced labor and the potential violation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, the chairmen wrote in the letter.

At a committee hearing in late July, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), the House China panel’s ranking Democrat, emphasized the concept of the CCP's military-civil fusion, saying that there are no truly private companies in China. The CCP isn’t in an economic competition, he said, but in a game to “determine the values that will be embedded in the foundational technologies of day-to-day life.”

In his emailed statement to The Epoch Times on Sept. 25, Mr. Gallagher called for Ford to cancel the deal with CATL.

“After months of investigation by the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, we're encouraged to see Ford take a crucial first step to reevaluate its deal with Chinese Communist Party-aligned EV battery firm CATL,” he said. “CATL's deep ties to CCP forced labor have no place in the American market and make the company exceptionally unfit to receive American taxpayer dollars.

“Now, Ford needs to call off this deal for good.”