Cao Dewang, the billionaire founder of Fuyao Glass and a long-time barometer for Chinese-American industrial relations, has issued a stark ultimatum to Washington. During the company’s 2025 annual shareholder meeting, Cao declared that he is prepared to shutter his massive American operations if profitability is choked by rising trade barriers. His defiant stance—'If they don't let me make money, I won't sell'—signals a deepening frost in the commercial relationship between the world's two largest economies.
This rhetorical shift is particularly jarring given Cao’s history as a vocal advocate for American manufacturing. In 2016, his $600 million investment in a shuttered General Motors plant in Ohio was hailed as a lifeline for the Rust Belt and immortalized in the Oscar-winning documentary 'American Factory.' At the time, Cao famously argued that manufacturing in the U.S. was more cost-effective than in China due to lower land, energy, and tax costs, a claim that sparked intense debate within China about its own domestic competitiveness.
However, the financial reality of Fuyao Glass remains robust despite Cao’s pessimistic tone. The company’s 2025 fiscal report shows that its U.S. subsidiary saw revenue surge by over 25% to 7.9 billion RMB, with net profits climbing 40% to 884 million RMB. The U.S. market now accounts for nearly 40% of Fuyao’s total overseas revenue, suggesting that the threat to leave is driven more by strategic frustration and political signaling than immediate financial distress.
The primary catalyst for this shift appears to be the Biden and potential Trump administrations' increasingly aggressive stance toward the Chinese automotive ecosystem. Recent moves by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to exclude Chinese capital from the EV sector, coupled with proposed 100% tariffs on Chinese-made vehicles, have effectively boxed in Fuyao’s growth strategy. While Fuyao followed its Western clients to the U.S. a decade ago, it had hoped to capitalize on the global expansion of Chinese giants like BYD, a path that is now being systematically blocked.
Cao’s rhetoric also mirrors the hardening stance of the Chinese government. His comments echo recent statements from Xie Feng, China’s Ambassador to the U.S., who criticized the 'over-generalization' of national security as a tool for economic protectionism. By aligning his public narrative with Beijing’s diplomatic pushback, Cao is positioning Fuyao not just as a global corporation, but as a vanguard of Chinese industrial interests against Western containment.