Zawadzki said Lithium Americas, which is based in Vancouver, Canada, and has assets in Argentina and Nevada, has a joint venture with the Chinese-based Ganfeng Lithium on the construction of a $565 million lithium project.

“While Lithium Americas is considering the possibility of a joint venture partner to develop Thacker Pass, the company will abide by all U.S. regulations including certain restrictions on potential foreign investments in strategic assets,” he said.

“Selling lithium chemicals at market prices to a Chinese company is not a violation of CIFIUS or US trade regulations, and many agricultural products produced in Humboldt County are exported to China,” Zawadzki added.

Zawadzki said that an investment in terms of a business partnership or equity ownership with a Chinese company in Thacker Pass is forbidden under U.S. law, and Lithium Nevada Corp. will not partner with any companies at Thacker Pass forbidden under U.S. law.

https://elkodaily.com/mining/thacker-pass-lithium-project-update/article_fd7ba2c0-bb9b-5711-b6fe-4cd31d4aa815.html

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Bottom line:  LAC can sell product to Ganfeng Ltd. or any other Chinese company, but LAC will not partner with any Chinese company in order to develop Thacker Pass.   

At least that is how I interpret it.  Any country or company not on the list of companies or countries currently whereby we are constrained by certain U.S. restrictions on potential foreign investments in strategic assets could be a financial partner, including Japan.  Again, just my interpretation.

Seriously, I suspect that should U.S.-China relations deteriorate further then at some point LAC would also be prohibited from selling LCE originating from a mine in the United States to China and/or Chinese companies, if not prohibited already since this article was published back on 3 September 2020.  It is one of those "stay tuned" foreign relations situations that is "in flux".  JMO