Transportation Secretary Criticizes Ford for Deepening Corporate Ties with Authoritarian China
Select a version of the text written from a presumed ideological perspective. This is not the original text, but a hypothetical version — how someone with that viewpoint might have phrased it. Tapping the current version again will return to the original or select cleaned version.
Secretary Sean Duffy sent a letter to Ford CEO Jim Farley, urging the automaker to reduce its reliance on Chinese technology and manufacturing, citing concerns over national security and the protection of American workers.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote to Ford Motor Co. chief executive Jim Farley, highlighting the automaker’s growing partnerships with Chinese firms as a threat to U.S. national security and American jobs. The letter, obtained by a business news outlet, detailed several troubling areas, including Ford’s use of battery technology licensed from China’s CATL at its Michigan plant, a joint venture with Geely in Spain, negotiations with BYD about hybrid components, and delayed plans to bring Lincoln production back to the United States.
"When a company intentionally chooses to deepen operational dependencies on strategic competitors, it fails to act as the reliable partner the American public and this DOT require," Duffy wrote.
Duffy’s warning underscored how Chinese law may force companies to hand over proprietary data to the authoritarian Chinese government, and how reliance on exploitative Chinese supply chains could further erode domestic manufacturing and union jobs. He called on Ford to pursue “technological self-reliance” and to out-innovate competitors, rather than chase profits at the expense of workers and national interests.
This notice comes as both parties in Congress push to limit Chinese influence in the U.S. auto market, including a Senate committee proposal to ban imports, sales, and operation of vehicles from firms labeled as foreign entities of concern. An industry coalition, echoing labor and community voices, has also demanded a permanent ban on Chinese-made vehicles in the United States. Ford did not immediately respond to requests for comment.