Ford CEO Jim Farley went on national television Monday and delivered a blunt message about Chinese automakers: keep them out of the United States. Appearing on Fox News' "Fox & Friends," Farley urged Washington to hold the line on the current 100% tariffs on Chinese-made vehicles and warned that letting Beijing's subsidized car companies into the American market would gut domestic manufacturing.
"We should not let them into our country," Farley said. "Manufacturing is the heart and soul of our country and for us to lose that to those exports would be devastating to our country."
The Ford chief executive's warning lands at a moment of real tension in U.S. trade policy. President Trump is scheduled to visit Beijing next month for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and the administration faces decisions on whether to maintain, raise, or ease tariffs on Chinese automakers. The White House, asked for comment Tuesday by the New York Post, did not directly address whether it plans to lower those tariffs.
Farley's case rests on a straightforward argument: Chinese automakers operate with massive state backing that no American company can match. He called the competitive landscape fundamentally rigged.
"There is no way this is a fair fight," Farley said, pointing to what he described as "huge direct support" from the Chinese government for its automakers.
The numbers bear out his concern. BYD, China's flagship electric vehicle maker, dethroned Tesla last year as the world's largest EV seller. In Mexico, BYD now accounts for seven out of every 10 electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles sold. Canada recently signed a deal with China to import 49,000 cars annually. The pattern is clear: Chinese automakers are flooding neighboring markets, and the 100% U.S. tariff is the main wall keeping them from doing the same here.
Farley was direct about what happens if that wall comes down.
"I sure hope we don't allow them to come across the border."
The Ford CEO did not limit his argument to economics. He raised national security concerns that should give every American pause. Modern Chinese-made vehicles, Farley said, come loaded with surveillance-grade hardware.
"All of these vehicles have 10 cameras," Farley told the Fox News audience. "They can collect a lot of data."
That concern is not hypothetical. Chinese tech firms operate under Beijing's national intelligence laws, which can compel companies to share data with the state. Putting millions of camera-equipped, internet-connected Chinese vehicles on American roads would create a rolling surveillance network, one that answers, ultimately, to the Chinese Communist Party. Farley is not the first to raise this risk, but hearing it from the CEO of one of America's oldest automakers gives the warning a different weight.
Farley has not stopped at public warnings. Bloomberg reported that the Ford CEO spoke with White House officials and argued that Chinese companies should be required to form joint ventures and hand controlling stakes to U.S. automakers in order to sell vehicles in America. The proposal would essentially mirror what China itself has demanded of Western companies for decades, forcing foreign firms to partner with domestic players and surrender control as the price of market access.
There is a certain justice in that approach. For years, American automakers had to hand over technology and equity to Chinese partners just to sell cars in China. Farley is suggesting Washington turn Beijing's own playbook around.
He also argued that efforts to keep Chinese cars out of America should carry a "big impact" on upcoming talks to rework the trade deal between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. That matters because Chinese automakers have been using Mexico as a staging ground. If BYD and its peers can assemble vehicles just south of the border and ship them north under favorable trade terms, the 100% tariff becomes a paper wall.
When the Post pressed the White House on Tuesday, spokesman Kush Desai offered praise for the administration's record but sidestepped the tariff question. Desai stated:
"No president has done more to revive the American auto industry than President Trump, who has championed an aggressive agenda of auto tariffs, rapid deregulation, tax cuts, and even a new tax deduction on interest payments for Made-in-USA autos. The Trump administration will continue to prioritize America's national and economic security."
That language is encouraging as far as it goes. But it does not answer the question Farley is really asking: will the 100% tariff hold?
In January, President Trump told the Detroit Economic Club he would be willing to "let China come in", so long as Chinese companies build factories in the United States and hire American workers. That framing leaves room for a deal that could lower tariffs in exchange for domestic production commitments. Whether such a deal would actually protect American workers or simply give Beijing a foothold on U.S. soil is the trillion-dollar question heading into the Beijing summit.
Farley's urgency makes more sense when you look at what Chinese automakers are actually producing. BYD has rolled out vehicles featuring five-minute charging for 250 miles of range. It has introduced an assisted driving system branded "God's Eye." Xiaomi, better known for smartphones, has entered the auto market with affordable, high-tech cars that are gaining traction overseas.
These are not the cheap knockoffs Americans might picture. They are sophisticated, government-subsidized machines built to undercut Western competitors on price while matching or exceeding them on features. The combination of state funding, low labor costs, and aggressive technology development gives Chinese automakers an advantage that no amount of corporate restructuring at Ford or GM can offset on its own.
Even Tesla, once the undisputed king of the EV market, has felt the pressure. BYD unseated Tesla as the world's top electric vehicle seller last year. In the first two months of 2026, Tesla's China sales regained some traction while BYD dipped, but Tesla continues to struggle with an aging car lineup and stiff competition. Investors have raised concerns about Elon Musk's focus on robotics and AI products rather than vehicle sales, and brand damage tied to Musk's involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency has compounded Tesla's challenges.
Strip away the trade jargon and Farley's message is simple. American automakers employ hundreds of thousands of workers. Those jobs depend on a market where competition is real but not rigged by a foreign government pouring billions into its national champions. If Chinese EVs flood the U.S. market at subsidized prices, the damage will not be abstract. It will show up in shuttered plants, lost paychecks, and hollowed-out communities across the industrial Midwest.
The security dimension only sharpens the case. Vehicles packed with cameras and sensors, built by companies answerable to Beijing, driving on American roads and collecting American data, that is not free trade. That is a concession no serious country should make.
Farley is right to sound the alarm. The question now is whether Washington will listen, or whether the lure of a grand bargain in Beijing will tempt negotiators into cracking open a door that should stay shut.
