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