US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday blasted Ford Motor’s business partnerships with Chinese companies, saying they pose national security concerns.In a letter to Ford CEO Jim Farley sent on Tuesday, US transportation secretary Sean Duffy said the carmaker’s dealings with Chinese battery maker CATL and Chinese carmakers Geely and BYD raised “profound concern”. He urged Ford to cut ties with major Chinese companies.Duffy said the department of transportation is “deeply alarmed” by Ford’s reliance on licensed technology from CATL at its plant in Marshall, Michigan, and noted CATL is on the Pentagon’s list of companies accused of ties to China’s military.He also criticised the company’s decision not to move production of the Lincoln Nautilus from China to the US until 2030 as it leaves the company reliant on Chinese manufacturing for several more years.Ford said Duffy’s “letter is a wrongheaded attempt to capture headlines”. The company said “while others continue to import Chinese batteries, Ford is investing to build batteries here in the US” and added “Ford owns the plant, controls the operation and employs the workforce”.Trump is set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month. Duffy’s comments come as Congress is pushing to tighten a ban on Chinese vehicles in the US.Major carmakers last week urged Congress to pass the ban before the end of the year, and expressly urged lawmakers to bar BYD and other Chinese carmakers from receiving waivers to sell vehicles in the US.Duffy also questioned Farley’s pitch in January to administration officials at the Detroit car show “to facilitate Chinese joint ventures on US soil”.The Chinese embassy in Washington, CATL, BYD and Geely did not immediately respond to requests for comment.“When a company intentionally chooses to deepen operational dependencies on strategic competitors, it fails to act as the reliable partner the US public and the department of transport require,” Duffy said of Ford.Ford’s deal with Geely faced criticism in July, with the chair ​of the US House select committee on China, representative John Moolenaar of Michigan, saying the “partnership with Geely will further enable China’s decimation of auto markets in Europe”.It has also faced criticism for its partnership with CATL.Reuters