Republican Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin is putting a stop to efforts to construct an electric car battery plant because of concerns about the involvement of a Chinese company.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin is blocking construction of an electric car battery plant that would have been run by a Chinese company.
"'Made in Virginia' cannot be a front for the Chinese Communist Party," Youngkin told reporters on Wednesday.
Via @KarlSalzmann https://t.co/YfYXcAJXHn
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) January 16, 2023
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, he stated that “the right thing to do was to not recruit Ford as a front for China to America.”
Youngkin’s fears are premised on the possibility of Ford Motor Company building a battery manufacturing plant that would be operated by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. in Virginia.
Under the Ford agreement, the ownership of the technology used to build the battery cells would belong to Contemporary Amperex Technology, a Chinese company known as the biggest giant in the production of electric vehicle batteries.
While he did not provide details about incentives the project offers, Youngkin believes it is part of the Chinese Communist Party’s ploy to beat the United States to global dominance.
Speaking to reporters after a speech at the State of the Commonwealth, he shared that his time as the CEO of a private equity firm affords him insight into the Chinese Communist Party’s one objective — “global dominance at the expense of the United States.”
News of Ford eyeing Virginia as a potential location for the battery manufacturing plant surfaced in December when Bloomberg reported that Ford and CATL were considering the Republican-run state alongside Michigan for the project.
It would later be seen on the Daily Caller that Youngkin had directed the Virginia Economic Development Partnership to remove Virginia from the talks.
The governor’s refusal of the Ford proposal comes amid tensions between the United States and China. In his Wednesday speech to the General Assembly, he issued warnings regarding Chinese influence and farmland purchases. He further promised that his administration would not lose sight of “the ever-growing threat that the Chinese Communist Party poses to our national security, our privacy, and our way of life in Virginia.”
“We welcome and encourage economic cooperation with international companies… But let me be clear, ‘Made in Virginia’ cannot be a front for the Chinese Communist Party,” he stated.
