Moolenaar: Expanding Chinese Investment in U.S. Would Reward Chinese Companies That Have Hurt American Workers
Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent highlighting the dangers of Chinese investment in critical U.S. industries. The letter reaffirms congressional support for President Trump’s America First Investment Policy and warns against granting China expanded market access as it weaponizes supply chains and subsidizes Chinese companies.
“Expanding market access or investment opportunities for Chinese firms in critical manufacturing sectors in the United States should be subject to heightened scrutiny... It would reward firms whose state-backed advantages have caused profound damage to American industry and workers,” says Moolenaar in the letter to Bessent.
The letter comments the Trump administration's recent moves to rein in dangerous Chinese investments, including the required divestment of HieFo Corporation from the Emcore Corporation, and the Justice Department's enforcement action against Suirui Corporation, as examples of protecting U.S. technological dominance. It notes that Chinese firms benefit from state subsidies, preferential financing, and regulatory protections unavailable to American competitors, advantages that would persist on U.S. soil.
Moolenaar also writes that:
“Expanded access to the American market would provide China commercial relief at a moment of internal strain and allow Chinese firms to preserve overcapacity that market forces would otherwise discipline. It would be tantamount to awarding a building reconstruction contract to the very arsonist who burned down the building in the first place.
“In lithium-ion batteries, a foundational technology, China has leveraged sustained state support and domestic procurement policies to achieve dominance. The Administration has rightly committed to using legal instruments, including CFIUS authorities, to restrict People’s Republic of China-affiliated persons from investing in critical technologies and infrastructure. Granting expanded U.S. access to Chinese battery firms would run counter to stated policy and undermine foreign entity of concern guardrails and domestic content incentives now being implemented by the Administration. Furthermore, it would undercut emerging American competitors and destabilize new capacity investments by trusted allies competing against China’s state-backed practices.
“In automobiles, Chinese firms have benefited from protected domestic markets and state-backed capital to achieve cost structures disconnected from market discipline. China’s domestic price wars and race-to-the-bottom style ‘involution’ have distorted world markets. Allowing Chinese automakers to establish footholds in U.S. production or technology partnerships would import Chinese distortions directly into the American industrial base. It would also place American automakers and their workers, concentrated in communities across Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, in direct competition with firms that have no need to compete on genuine market disciplines.”
Read the full letter here.