General Motors, one of America’s top carmakers, leads U.S. companies in its exposure to China, perched in a delicate position as bilateral trade tensions persist amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s steep 55% tariffs on imports from the country, according to a research report published last week. Other high-profile firms, including Tesla, Ford, Cummins, Honeywell, Coca-Cola, and Qualcomm also rank in the top 10, illustrating corporate America’s dependence on the country. Influential companies Amazon, Apple, Meta and Nvidia did not make it to the top 10, but remain among the largest tech firms at risk due to disruptions in the Chinese market and their global supply chains according to the latest annual index from market research firm Strategy Risks, which assessed the top 250 publicly listed U.S. companies to identify those most vulnerable to U.S.-China trade tensions in 2025. The report analyses a range of public information – including company filings, media reports, and government data – to assign each firm an exposure score from 0 to 100.
The evaluation considered factors such as supply-chain dynamics, ties to the Chinese government and Communist Party officials, industry-specific regulations in China, and even biases in the data sets related to a firm’s transparency on China-related information. With a score of 69.8, GM topped the list, followed closely by Cummins and Honeywell at 65.6 and 62.9 respectively. Tesla scored 60.7 while Coca-Cola tallied 58, closely trailed by Ford at 56.5 and Qualcomm at 56.2.
The report attributes GM’s top ranking to its “relatively high number of joint ventures with Chinese state-owned companies”. It has 10 joint ventures in China, including the 50-50 joint venture SAIC-GM with SAIC Motor, a state-owned Chinese company. In December, GM said it expected to lose more than USD5 billion as it reorganized its struggling business in China, where car sales have dropped sharply. Colgate-Palmolive, a consumer products company, was also listed as among the most vulnerable to disruptions due to its heavy reliance on Chinese exports of plastic and electric toothbrushes, “with hundreds of containers shipped from Chinese ports to the U.S. in 2024”. Apple, which topped last year’s list at No 2, slipped to No 27 this year, but it still rated among the largest tech companies most exposed to China.
According to Juozapas Bagdonas of Strategy Risks, General Motors has not only been significantly affected by tariffs, but recent restructuring of some of its joint ventures in China has also made the company more “politically exposed”. “They hold less power over those joint ventures,” he said, “and potentially the government could impose their will on intellectual property, or any other things that might be important for some American company like GM.” Speaking at the U.S.-China Business Council in Washington last week, Xie Feng, China's Ambassador in Washington, said many American firms were increasingly worried about “losing the Chinese market” and that their R&D efforts would “slow down”. “Your concerns should be heeded,” Xie added, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
