The Chinese Communist Party junta in Beijing clamors for even more access to the capital markets of the United States, the money center of the world. But that access carries material risks to our country.
First, it compromises our industrial base because threats of espionage and sabotage follow those acquisitions and capital flows. For example, just last week, Reuters reported that rogue cellular radios and communications devices were found in Chinese batteries, EV chargers, and solar panels that are already in the United States.
Second, granting access to U.S. markets grants legitimacy and financial power to one of the most brutal and repressive regimes on earth, one that grows increasingly blunt in its anti-American posture. America should not be in the business of financing an enemy.
Despite these clear warnings, the People’s Republic of China, with help from the Biden administration, Democratic governors, and members of Congress, has established footholds in America’s emerging electric vehicle battery sector.
Gotion, a company with deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party, has begun building plants in Michigan and Illinois despite strong local pushback. Last year, President Trump wrote on Truth Social that the Gotion plants “would put Michiganders under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing.”
CATL, a company designated by the Pentagon as a “Chinese Military Company,” is working with Ford in Michigan and also has footprints in several other states. Secretary of State and acting National Security Advisor Marco Rubio previously sought to block CATL’s Michigan plant, writing that the facility will “only deepen U.S. reliance on the Chinese Communist Party for battery tech.” He also highlighted the company’s “ties to forced labor and to Xinjiang” and urged the Department of Homeland Security to add CATL to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, which would blacklist its products in the United States.
President Trump and Secretary Rubio are right — but even with Republicans in control of Washington, these malicious actors continue to operate in the U.S. Now, the new reconciliation bill, deemed the “Big Beautiful Bill,” just passed in the House—and it fails to fix loopholes created by the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). As this legislation moves to the Senate, it leaves the window open for Chinese companies to benefit from massive U.S. tax credits, specifically the 45x Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit, an uncapped incentive program for certain manufacturing projects.
Unless the Senate takes action to fix this legislation, the American taxpayer will be on the hook for funding our foremost adversary. While Chinese companies cannot receive tax credits on their own, they can easily bypass these restrictions by establishing joint ventures or taking advantage of projects that license Chinese technology to receive tax credits for at least two more years.
Right now, the highest-profile project that would benefit from these credits is Ford’s BlueOval Battery Park Michigan, which relies on CATL’s battery technology. Under this arrangement, Ford will pay CATL to license its technology and operational services for the plant.
Under the House-passed bill, U.S. companies that receive “material assistance” from prohibited foreign entities like CATL will remain eligible to receive 45X tax credits for at least two years. Ford has yet to disclose the details of this arrangement, despite threats of Congressional subpoena, so the American people still have no idea of how much of their dollars will flow to Beijing.
Ford has committed itself to this project—despite the clear economic and national security threats. Ford ignores the U.S. Department of Defense, which has already outlawed battery procurement from CATL, Gotion, and four other Chinese companies.
So, will the Senate protect America? Will the Senate stop China’s malicious efforts to dominate America’s critical technologies?
As a first step, the Senate must mandate no U.S. tax credits to any PRC-affiliated companies. None. Moving further, they should stop PRC companies from further infiltrating America’s industrial base and block U.S. companies from working domestically with any company listed by the Department of Defense as a Chinese Military Company or that is considered a foreign entity of concern.
Since entering public life, President Trump has elevated the threat that China poses to the United States. He has changed the paradigm of how Americans think about the Chinese regime. In this new White House term, he can use all tools of American power to confront this Chinese threat and ensure America’s prosperity and security far into the future.
Steve Cortes is president of the League of American Workers, a populist right pro-laborer advocacy group, and senior political advisor to Catholic Vote.
He is a former senior advisor to President Trump and JD Vance, plus a former commentator for Fox News and CNN.