Ford-CATL Deal Becomes the Trump-Xi Summit Playbook

Ford's 3 billion US dollar BlueOval Battery Park in Marshall, Michigan, is about to come online with 1,700 employees and lithium iron phosphate cells produced under license from CATL. Business Times Singapore reports that crews were still installing equipment in April, days before President Donald Trump's scheduled summit with Xi Jinping in Beijing on May 13 to 15.

The structure is the point. Ford owns the land, the buildings, the equipment and the workforce. CATL holds no equity. It licenses its battery chemistry, sends Chinese engineers to train Ford employees, and collects fees. CATL CEO Robin Zeng has joked that his cells are "dumb as bricks." The setup has echoes of the TikTok arrangement, in which ByteDance licenses its algorithm to a US-based entity rather than owning the operation.

Why Washington is paying attention

Chinese investment into the US has slowed to a trickle since Trump's first term, and BYD and Xiaomi are effectively frozen out of the consumer market by 100 percent tariffs. Trump has said he is open to Chinese car plants in the US. Ford CEO Jim Farley told Fox News, "We should not let them into our country," while expressing openness to expanded Chinese partnerships.

CATL's European pivot, as the comparison

The Korea Herald reports that CATL raised 5 billion US dollars in Hong Kong and plans to direct about 90 percent of the proceeds to its plant in Debrecen, Hungary. That facility starts production this year with around 40 gigawatt-hours of capacity, scaling toward 100, behind a German plant as CATL's second European base. The pattern: licensing in the US, full ownership at scale in Europe.

What is on the table in Beijing

The Straits Times reports that Trump arrives in Beijing on the evening of May 13. Scott Kennedy at CSIS describes the US agenda as "five Bs," Boeing, beef, beans, the Board of Trade and the Board of Investment, while China is focused on "three Ts," Taiwan, tariffs and technology. Trump told reporters on May 11 he plans to discuss arms sales to Taiwan with Xi, alongside energy security and Iran. Both sides are also expected to discuss extending the rare-earth truce reached at Busan in October 2025.

Sources: Business Times Singapore, The Korea Herald, The Straits Times