Republican lawmaker urges Bessent to guard against Chinese investment

By Michael Martina and David Lawder

WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) – Reviving market access to Chinese industrial firms would undercut U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to rebuild American manufacturing, the head of a congressional committee on China warned Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as Trump prepares to visit Beijing for trade talks. 

Chinese foreign direct investment into the U.S. has fallen dramatically in recent years as U.S. officials talk about the need to “de-risk” the United States’ economy, though some media reports have suggested the two sides are looking at ways to revive reciprocal investment.  

John Moolenaar, the Republican chair of the House of Representatives’ select committee on China, told Bessent in a letter seen by Reuters that Chinese companies routinely benefit from government support allowing them to operate at a loss and displace U.S. competitors.

Inviting them to expand investment in the U.S. would provide relief to China’s strained economy and undermine the administration’s efforts to safeguard national security and rebuild American industrial strength, Moolenaar told Bessent in the letter dated March 4. 

“Beijing seeks to subsidize its broken economic model on the back of the American taxpayer and capitalize on the ill-gotten gains of its mass intellectual property theft by exporting its state-subsidized industrial overcapacity to our shores,” Moolenaar said. 

The letter comes ahead of a highly anticipated meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, expected March 31 to April 2. The Trump administration hopes the leaders can agree to extend a delicate tariff truce amid an ongoing industrial and technological rivalry. 

The U.S. president, using controversial tariffs, has made reviving American manufacturing a focus of his economic agenda, including efforts to win investment commitments from partners and allies in key industries, such as semiconductor fabrication and shipbuilding. 

But Trump signed an executive order in February 2025 singling out the risks of Chinese investment for “targeting the crown jewels” of American technology.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office said this week in a policy document that it would seek “constructive foreign investment” that grows the U.S. industrial base but does not imperil U.S. national security.

Without naming China directly, USTR’s 2026 Trade Policy Agenda pledged to use the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to guard against national security threats and promote “productive, market-based investment.”    

China’s embassy in Washington and the Treasury Department did not respond immediately to requests for comment on whether the two sides were discussing any plans to increase reciprocal investment.

Moolenaar specifically warned against allowing greater inroads to Chinese firms in the auto and lithium-ion battery industries. The Michigan lawmaker has repeatedly scrutinized Ford’s  partnership with Chinese battery giant CATL , a company the Pentagon says is linked to China’s military. 

Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, the top Chinese trade ‌negotiator, are expected to meet in mid-March to plan for the leaders’ summit. 

(Reporting by Michael Martina and David Lawder in Washington; Editing by Don Durfee and Diane Craft)