“Do you know how big Volvo is?” asked Don Leclair, Ford’s chief financial officer. It was 2008 and Leclair was responding to an offer from a little-known Chinese businessman to buy the Swedish automaker, which Ford owned. The businessman, Li Shufu, owned a company with less than half of Volvo’s sales and a flagship model, King Kong, almost unknown outside China. He had to politely show the door to “Glass House,” Ford’s iconic headquarters near Detroit, according to two people at the meeting. Ford’s Leclair did not respond to requests for comment on the episode. Fast forward to 2021, Li...