Gov. Glenn Youngkin doesn’t want to spend Virginia’s tax dollars to lure a company to Pittsylvania County that is probably a front for the Chinese Communist Party.

For that, he’s taking heat.

Earlier this week The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that Youngkin, consumed with presidential ambition, killed a multi-billion dollar project that was headed to southern Virginia. The venture would have created thousands of jobs, they reported, with Ford to build an electric vehicle battery plant. The governor sacrificed the jobs, it was reported, because Ford’s partner in the project was a Chinese company.

Youngkin denied that Ford had already chosen Virginia, saying he never proposed an incentive package, effectlvely taking the Old Dominion out of the discussion with what he believes is a company working with the CCP. On Thursday, Ford confirmed that Youngkin was telling the truth. They have not yet selected a location for their venture with the Chinese.

Youngkin is right not to be seduced by the promise of jobs that may never materialize. No Chinese company operates without the approval and involvement of the Party.

The governor is worried - as we all should be - about China worming its way into ownership of large chunks of American farmland and manufacturing. Particularly in states, such as Virginia, with a large military presence.

Worse would be spending tax dollars to incentivize them to locate here. Buried in the Times-Dispatch story is a quote from an industry expert saying Pittsylvania would have been an unlikely choice for Ford because it is so far from any electric vehicle plant. The incentives would need to be astronomical to make any deal work.

No thanks.

A September 2022 piece in The Wall Street Journal warned that it is devilishly difficult to separate Chinese corporations from the Communist Party and thus to figure out the extent of Chinese involvement in America.

“There’s the problem of complex corporate structures that help Chinese investors obscure ownership and evade scrutiny. One Chinese billionaire, Sun Guangxin, invested an estimated $110 million in Texas farmland. He planned to build a wind-turbine farm on a 15,000-acre Val Verde County parcel that would give him access to the Texas electricity grid. There isn’t much in Val Verde County besides Laughlin Air Force Base. In 2020 then-Rep. Will Hurd wrote an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle urging the federal government to halt the project on national-security grounds. Mr. Sun’s company, GH America, received $163,513 in Paycheck Protection Program loans during the pandemic.

Interestingly, that same Journal article mentioned the controversial Chinese purchase of Smithfield Foods and how the Chinese now own most of the pork supply in the U.S.

U.S. Department of Agriculture data show that Chinese ownership of U.S. farmland leapt more than 20-fold in a decade, from $81 million in 2010 to $1.8 billion in 2020. Beijing hasn’t outlined a strategy, but large-scale state backing for these investments indicates there is one. In 2013 the government-owned Bank of China loaned $4 billion to Hong Kong-headquartered WH Group, the world’s largest pork producer, to buy Virginia’s Smithfield Foods. WH now controls much of the U.S. pork supply and revenue because of the deal.

Nevertheless, early reports that Youngkin wasn’t playing ball with Ford was catnip to Democrats and their pals in the media.

It gave Times-Dispatch columnist Jeff Schapiro, for instance, a chance to write a “Youngkin Embraces Reds-Under-The- Bed Politics” piece last month.

Schapiro is no Youngkin fan. In fact, the columnist was clutching his pearls when, at last January’s inauguration, the new governor’s - maskless, gasp! -  supporters jammed into Richmond’s historical Main Street Station for a country-themed party featuring the Zac Brown Band. Schapiro dubbed it a “Vests and Ventilators Gala.”

Remind me. How many Republican revelers wound up on ventilators after that “super-spreader event?”

Naturally Virginia House Democratic leader Del. Don Scott also took the opportunity to slam the governor for not wanting to open Virginia’s doors and wallets to the CCP in exchange for jobs.

Perhaps Youngkin learned from watching what happened when, in 2014, former Gov. Terry McAuliffe threw $1.4 million from a Governor’s Opportunity Fund at a Chinese company that promised to create hundreds of jobs in an abandoned factory in Appomattox. The company was supposed to make new catalysts and industrial honeycomb. A grinning McAuliffe posed for pictures, enjoying accolades from fellow Democrats and the media for bringing jobs to a depressed region of Virginia.

Alas, it turned out to be a scam.

No jobs. Money gone.

Virginia has already invested about $200 million in the Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill in Pittsylvania to attract major manufacturing industries and jobs to an area that needs them.

Youngkin and his team should redouble their efforts to bring in an American company. Let the Chinese go elsewhere.