Woke “green” ideology backfired on the eco-extremists. President Joe Biden’s planned subsidies for domestic electric vehicle production could end up benefiting Communist Chinese government-tied companies.
Fox News Digital reported Feb. 20 that multiple national security experts and former U.S. officials warned taxpayer-funded electric vehicle (EV) subsidies in Biden’s misnamed eco-extremist Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) could be exploited to benefit Chinese government-backed companies. China practices “civil-military fusion,” where everything in the economic and tech spheres is accessible to the Chinese military and all companies are directly answerable to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The experts’ warnings were issued just a week after America’s second largest car manufacturer, Ford, announced a partnership to build a Michigan EV battery plant with Chinese tech giant Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL). Fox News noted the communist Chinese company could end up benefiting from the bill’s EV subsidies, which ironically were supposedly meant to help with domestic supply chains, according to the experts.
As former Department of Energy official Andrew Horn put it in comments to Fox News: “‘The [People's Republic of China (PRC)] and CATL are the same thing. There's really no separation.’” Horn added, “‘It's just the nature of the way business is done in China, that the PRC has influence and control over all of its companies. If we allow this to go forward, we are allowing a loophole to be exploited for any Chinese, PRC company.’”
Former White House National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien also reportedly told Fox News: “‘It's shocking that Ford is doing this.’” He referred to the recent Chinese spy balloon debacle. “‘And Ford is partnering with our leading competitor, our adversary, to work on battery technology and build batteries here in America,’” O’Brien continued. “‘On top of that, they're trying to work out a loophole to get U.S. taxpayers to support and subsidize their dealings with China and to bolster a Chinese company with U.S. tax dollars, the tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act.’”
O’Brien said that CATL not only falls under China’s national security law; but its founder and billionaire CEO Robin Zeng is tied to the Chinese Communist Party propaganda and influence campaign “United Front,” according to Fox News. CATL is also reportedly partnered with car makers Tesla, BMW, Honda and Volkswagen.
A Ford spokesperson claimed CATL will have little involvement in the new plant, being a “contractual service provider and licensor of technology,” according to Fox News. But this would also possibly get around the IRA restrictions on subsidies for EVs with components from a “foreign entity of concern” like China, which dominates EV battery cell manufacturing, Fox indicated.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact ABC News (818) 460-7477, CBS News (212) 975-3247 and NBC News (212) 664-6192 and demand they report on how Biden’s irresponsible Inflation Reduction Act could actually benefit Chinese Communist Party-backed companies.
