Ford announced last week it is investing $3.5 billion to build a Michigan factory that will produce EV batteries in partnership with Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited. The Chinese firm is not only providing technology but also sending equipment and workers to help build and run the factory, according to Ford.

Biden promised that his massive climate spending package, the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, would give the United States the ability “to compete with China for the future.” The law, which Democrats pushed through Congress along party lines, has provisions that bar companies from qualifying for tax credits if any EV battery components were manufactured by a “foreign entity of concern,” a provision aimed at quelling concerns that China will benefit.

But Ford expressed confidence Monday that its EV battery plant, 100 miles west of Detroit, will qualify for some of the Inflation Reduction Act’s lucrative federal tax breaks. The company emphasized that it owns 100 percent of the factory because the deal with the Chinese firm is structured as a licensing agreement rather than as a joint venture, meaning Ford’s Chinese partner does not have direct ownership.

[Will this pass muster legally? Almost certainly. Was it designed to do so? Almost certainly. Anyone who thought Biden Inc would take “buy American” and competition against China seriously was engaging in denial. — Ed]