Column: Governor should be praised for nixing Ford battery plant

When Gov. Glenn Youngkin withdrew Virginia from talks with Ford Motor Co. about the possible development of an electric vehicle battery plant in Southside Virginia, he publicly stated that his decision was based on concerns that the proposed project, and the tax credits it would receive, would benefit the Chinese Communist Party.

Democrats rejected such concerns out of hand and slammed the governor for derailing a significant economic development opportunity over what they heatedly characterized as an obsession with “Reds under the bed,” and a petty partisan desire to generate right-wing talking points for a possible 2024 presidential run.

The Democrats’ position in this case is absolutely baseless. The relevant facts clearly validate the governor’s concerns and support his decision. And the relevant facts clearly show that Democratic critics are the ones, in fact, driven by petty partisanship instead of a sober consideration of what is required to safeguard the interests of Virginia and the nation.

Under the proposal scrubbed by the governor, Ford would have owned the factory building. But the factory would have been operated by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., or CATL, a Chinese company that is the largest producer of electric vehicle batteries in the world. CATL would have owned and controlled the technology used to produce the batteries.

The founder and executive head of CATL, Zeng Yuqun, has been identified as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, or CPPCC. According to the U.S. government, the CPPCC, acting under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, coordinates China’s wide-ranging “United Front” campaign to influence foreign governments and corporations to take actions or adopt positions that support Beijing’s preferred policies.

This should set off alarm bells that awaken even those in the deepest slumber of denial about the ever-growing threat posed by China and its intensifying drive for global dominance at the expense of the U.S. and other Western nations.

Chinese intelligence operations are relentlessly probing our governmental, corporate and educational institutions. They steal a staggering amount of sensitive information. FBI Director Christopher Wray has said that the bureau opens an investigation on some Chinese threat about every 12 hours or so. And he recently said that the bureau has approximately 2,000 investigations underway regarding activities that trace right back to the Chinese Communist government.

The spy balloon was not an anomaly. It was a dramatic example of a growing threat that confronts us in many forms: the relentless hacking, the countless thefts of intellectual property, the land purchases near our military bases, the opening of police-style surveillance offices in our major cities, the aggressive manufacture and distribution of massive amounts of fentanyl precursor chemicals, the accelerating development of advanced nuclear weapons and sophisticated delivery systems, the construction of military bases on artificial islands in the South China Sea, the crushing of democratic Hong Kong, the increasingly aggressive rhetoric directed against Taiwan, and much more.

In light of the obvious and growing threat posed by the totalitarian, expansionist government of Communist China, it would be criminally irresponsible not to include national security considerations in the meticulous evaluation of any proposed business venture that involves a Red Chinese entity.

Communists have always counted on the unprincipled, incautious greed of Western businesses to help supply the material resources and know-how needed to advance the Communist agenda of subversion, expansion and domination. As Vladimir Lenin famously predicted, “The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.”

For some years now, our political culture has been corrupted by an unserious focus on fictional narratives and trivialities. Too many of our supposed political leaders seem more intent on producing performative soundbites than substantive policy.

It is past time for politicians, and all Americans, to awaken and address with sober seriousness the threats that confront us, including the existential threat posed by Communist China. By scrubbing the Chinese battery plant project, Gov. Youngkin has shown precisely the kind of principled, sober, substantive leadership we will need for liberty to prevail. He should be praised for his action by all Virginians of every political persuasion.