For executives on both sides of the Pacific, Ford Motor Co.’s controversial deal to build a $3.5 billion electric-vehicle battery plant in Michigan using Chinese technology was the finale of a high-wire act that began two years ago.
When Ford and China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd first began talking in early 2021 about building batteries together in North America, a political firestorm seemed like a distant prospect, according to people familiar with the negotiations. That soon changed.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan last year kicked off a diplomatic clash that caused a delay in announcing the plant. An escalating trade war didn’t help matters. Now, the pact is drawing scrutiny from government officials in the U.S. and China as an alleged spy balloon inflames tensions between the two countries.
