Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley took to Fox & Friends this week to voice a fundamental tension inside the Dearborn automaker: namely, touting its commanding position in the United States thanks to its F-Series trucks versus warning of the looming Chinese threat to it all.

Allowing Chinese automakers into the rich U.S. market would be “devastating,” he said: “We should not let them into our country. Manufacturing is the heart and soul of our country and for us to lose that to those exports would be devastating to our country.”

At a midweek press conference where he was asked to answer his alleged anti-China bias from two days earlier, Farley expressed "a ton of respect" for Chinese automakers: "They're really leading the world in many ways. The reality is, if you're an automaker today and you don't become fit like the best of the Chinese, you're not going to be around much longer."

Now, in the fiercely nationalistic corners of the global auto industry, Farley's take is almost certainly considered the "rising voice of protectionism" (as I was labeled years ago by Toyota) — the Ford CEO desperate to contain the Chinese automotive juggernaut growing market share from Europe to Mexico and, soon, Canada.

There's another possibility: he's telling the truth. The Chinese industry's low-cost push into high-cost markets outside Asia is undeniable, and so are the results. Ask the Irish motorists I saw driving MG-branded Chinese vehicles late last summer near Dublin; or dealers in Germany and Italy, among others, losing sales to Chinese brands scouting locations for new assembly plants in the heart of Europe.

None of that happens without a cost to economies, employment and auto-producing communities, Farley warned: "If you look at recent history, countries that open their doors too fast without a real plan ... they saw their factories and jobs vanish."

That's why Asia's Big Three auto producing nations — China, Japan and South Korea — maintain barriers to importation and sales of foreign vehicles, effectively excluding U.S.-made vehicles from their markets. It's partly why China required such legacy automakers as Ford, General Motors Co. and Volkswagen AG to create joint ventures with Chinese partners.

And it's why the United States under the so-called "Chicken Tax" has for decades levied tariffs on imports of foreign-made trucks, forcing the likes of Toyota and Nissan to develop and build full-size pickups here with limited success. Yes, Asia's Big Three aren't the only protectionists in the game.

To hear President Donald Trump and many industry analysts tell it, however, the arrival of low-cost, high-tech Chinese players into the United States is merely a matter of time, shifting politics and consumer demand wearied by the ridiculous runup in new vehicle prices — now averaging roughly $50,000.

No wonder the fleet of U.S. vehicles on the road is pushing 13 years old. Enter the Chinese — or the prospect of them, anyway. They offer next-gen technology at last-gen prices; surprising options like on-board fridges; lower-cost product development and manufacturing systems that companies like Ford are chasing to catch up.

And they have a deal to soon bring 49,000 Chinese EVs into Canada, in part a reaction by Canada to Trump tariffs on Canadian vehicles and commodities. The move by Prime Minister Mark Carney creates a test case because Canada's auto sector (and its unionized workforce) most reflect the U.S. industry in form, custom and corporate culture.

"This is gonna happen," writes Tu Le, managing director of Sino Auto Insights. "The Trump administration's policies have only hastened it."

Farley's point: Be careful. Understand the potential national security risks of low-cost Chinese EVs laden with high tech plying American streets and highways ... collecting data on people, places, businesses and more. Understand that Chinese policymakers are betting free-trade sentiment will prevail in the United States and open the world's richest market to Chinese vehicles. Who benefits?

We should know: There's no better town than Detroit to recall the price exacted by foreign competition on establishment automakers grown soft by near-monopolies in the postwar Golden Age of the 1950s and '60s. They gave way eventually to the ignominy of bankruptcy.

Today's hometown automakers are more competitive and more smartly led. But the technological change, intense competition and capital requirements to manage it all require enormous bets and little margin for error.

This is one of those times.

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