In a move that bespeaks of American decline in the face of a surgent China, the country of Brazil has announced a new deal with a Chinese company to revamp an abandoned Ford Motors factory to manufacture electric vehicle battery packs.
Ahead of his upcoming trip to China, socialist Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is set to make the plans for Chinese tech company BYD’s takeover of the abandoned Ford facility a main part of his agenda for the the trip.
The only hitch to the plan is the acquiescence from Ford to allow the property they still control to be given over to BYD. Ford closed the facility in 2021, according to Reuters.
In October, Chinese-owned BYD announced its plan to invest 3 billion Brazilian reals (approximately $570 million) to ramp up electric vehicle production in the Camaçari industrial area outside the country’s capital in Salvador. The company reportedly signed its deal with Brazil’s government at the end of last year.
The plan is to spread Chinese-made electric vehicles beyond Asia, where they currently outsell world EV leader Tesla.
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The BYD deal is reportedly going to be a central part of his agenda as he visits Beijing, especially since Lula broke into politics after being a union man for Brazil’s auto industry, in particular in the face of cutbacks by Ford in the 1980s. At the time, Ford’s cutbacks were part of general fears that Brazil would lose its industrial base.
It is also a significant slap at the U.S. for the recently elected socialist president.
“For the Chinese it is important to set up in Bahia because even if they don’t take advantage of the structure as much, they are Chinese replacing Americans,” a diplomat who wanted to stay anonymous told Reuters.
BYD noted that they are fully prepared to launch the project as soon as a deal can be reached with Ford to relinquish the property, but sources inside the government added that the deal with Ford is close to completion and “no major hurdles” are left to overcome.
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A separate Reuters report notes that Brazil is also working on a deal to bring a Chinese semiconductor manufacturer into the country as China becomes the president’s main target for economic partnerships. Lula has also rebuffed back channel suggestions from Joe Biden’s regime that the growing economic coupling with China is not a welcome development.
Lula’s top foreign policy advisor, former Foreign Minister Celso Amorin, waved off America’s warnings, saying, “I don’t pay attention to messages. If the US wants, they can propose bigger and better conditions and that’s it, and we will choose theirs. We have no preference for a Chinese semiconductor factory. But if they offer good conditions, I don’t see why we refuse. We are not afraid of the big bad wolf.”
There is a good chance Ford will find it in its interests to dump the plant in Brazil. Ford is already losing billions a year on its electric car division as Americans have been slow to take to EVs despite the constant flogging of the idea from the Biden administration and his billions is government subsidies.
Indeed, last year Ford announced that it had lost a mind-boggling $3 billion, before taxes, with its EV division over the last two years.
Ultimately, Brazil’s growing economic partnership with China shows that Joe Biden’s attempts to cozy up to the socialist leader has not returned many dividends for the U.S.
Exacerbating matters, Biden’s policies appear to be driving other countries directly to China’s doorstep.
The Monroe Doctrine was once America’s chief guidance for how the U.S. dealt with economic and military investment from overseas enemies, a policy that cast a frown on such activities and one that was often observed by South and Central American countries. But clearly, our biggest enemy, China, is not at all afraid of how Joe Biden’s government will react to its growing presence in our hemisphere.
This is all sobering evidence of how little fear or respect Europeans, South Americans, and Chinese governments have for the feckless and toothless Biden regime as America continues its economic decline.
Brazil’s new left-wing president is stealing aid and assistance from right under Biden’s nose and not only bleeding the USA’s economic might, he is now all but hand-delivering U.S. factories to China.
Meanwhile, while the rest of the world is moving and shaking, Joe Biden mindlessly shovels ice cream into his mouth and wanders aimlessly at White House Eater Egg rolls as he is guided around like a nursing home resident by his wife and son.
This may just be one factory in Brazil, but it represents so much of what’s so very wrong with the Biden administration.
