FIRST ON FOX: The CEO of Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) — the China-based company partnering with Ford to produce electric vehicle batteries in the U.S. — is tied to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) so-called “United Front” influence campaign.
Zeng Yuqun, who founded CATL in 2012 and remains its top executive, was identified last year as a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee. According to a U.S. government report published in 2018, the CPPCC is a “critical coordinating body” that brings together representatives of Chinese interest groups and is led by the CCP’s Politburo Standing Committee.
“The CPPCC, an advisory committee ‘under the leadership of the [CCP],’ is the highest-ranking entity overseeing the United Front system,” stated the report which was assembled by the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission, an independent federal agency.
“The United Front strategy uses a range of methods to influence overseas Chinese communities, foreign governments, and other actors to take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing’s preferred policies,” the report added. “A number of official and quasi-official entities conduct overseas activities guided or funded by the United Front including Chinese government and military organizations.”
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In March 2022, the CPPCC highlighted Yuqun’s work with CATL fortifying China’s lithium supply chains which are crucial for electric vehicle production and other green energy development. The entity posted on its website an article published at the time by China Daily, a media outlet owned by the CCP’s Central Propaganda Department, which named Yuqun as a member of the 13th CPPCC National Committee.
Meanwhile, Ford Motor Company announced Monday that it would invest $3.5 billion to build an electric vehicle plant in southern Michigan. As part of the announcement, the U.S. automaker said it had reached an agreement with CATL to manufacture the battery cells at the plant using services provided by the Chinese company.
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“Ford is accelerating the reshoring of America’s critical supply chains by establishing a new battery production plant in the United States with 2,500 new jobs in America,” a Ford spokesperson told Fox News Digital in an email Tuesday. “Ford will maintain full control of the new battery facility, which will be wholly owned by Ford with no foreign investment.”
“CATL is the world’s largest battery producer; their limited involvement will be as a contractual service provider and licensor of technology to Ford,” the spokesperson added.
Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin nixed a plan earlier this year for the facility to be built in his state over concerns regarding China’s influence on CATL. Although it is not state-owned, Chinese investors tied to the CCP have held financial stakes in CATL, according to a New York Times review.
The Chinese government has also taken strategic steps over the last decade to bolster CATL and other electric vehicle industry companies based in China.
“The structure was CATL and the Chinese Communist Party would have full operational control over the technology,” Youngkin said in an interview with Bloomberg. “I would have loved to have had Ford come to Virginia and build a battery plant if they were not using it as a front for a company that is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.”
Michael Sobolik, a fellow in Indo-Pacific Studies at the American Foreign Policy Council, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that “Ford should know that it is opening itself up to quiet manipulation and the malign influence of the CCP by partnering with an organization run by a CPPCC member.”
“The Chinese Communist Party uses the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference as a sham. It is neither consultative, nor is it about the Chinese people. The CCP uses the CPPCC to rubber-stamp the Party agenda, and hides behind the organization’s diverse membership,” Sobolik continued. “It’s a fig leaf of an organization — but it does play a substantive role when it comes to ‘united front’ work.”
“An important objective of united front work is advancing the Party’s interests with non-Party members outside China. It is common for CPPCC members to be partners with Western companies, as we have seen with Deloitte.”
On Tuesday, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, sent a letter to several Biden administration officials, demanding a review of the licensing agreement between Ford and CATL. He also requested the administration commits to not supporting CCP efforts via taxpayer funding.
“As you are also aware, even nominally private Chinese companies enjoy rich state support from Beijing, as well as important controls on their ownership,” he wrote to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
“These firms are also obliged by numerous CCP policies and laws to support the regime’s objectives. CATL is no exception.”
In addition, a December report from the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University in the U.K. determined that CATL reached a deal last year to expand operations into the Xinjiang province of China where the Chinese government has been accused of coercive labor practices and human rights violations targeting the Uyghur Muslim minority group.
The report identified several major automakers including Ford which were linked to companies operating in the region.
In response to the report, Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., opened an inquiry into Ford and the other listed automakers’ potential exposure to Xinjiang supply chains.
“Unless due diligence confirms that components are not linked to forced labor, automakers cannot and should not sell cars in the United States that include components mined or produced in Xinjiang,” Wyden said on Dec. 22. “The United States considers the Chinese government’s brutal oppression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang an ‘ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity.’”
The Ford spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that its supply chains were not tied to the Xinjiang province.
“Ford does not manufacture in Xinjiang, nor do we import goods from this region,” they said. “We are committed to respecting human rights everywhere we operate and throughout our entire value chain. We maintain robust processes to ensure that our operations in China and globally comply with all applicable laws and regulations.”
CATL did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.