Trump withdraws nomination of China hawk for key post in US-Sino tech battle

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By Karen Freifeld

(Reuters) – President Donald Trump has withdrawn the nomination of Landon Heid, a China hawk, for a key post in the U.S.-China tech battle, raising questions about whether the move signals a more dovish approach to Beijing.

Trump withdrew Heid’s nomination on Wednesday for assistant secretary for export administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce, according to the Congress.gov website. The president had selected him in February for the post overseeing export controls for national security. 

Chris McGuire, an expert on technology and national security who served at the U.S. Department of State until this summer, called the withdrawal “very concerning” on Thursday.

“Hopefully this does not signal that the Administration plans to further weaken U.S. restrictions on sales of our most advanced technologies to China, but I fear that it does,” McGuire, who also previously served at the White House National Security Council, wrote in a social media post on X.

Heid, who now serves on the NSC, did not respond to a request for comment.

“Landon Heid is a valued voice within the administration and will continue executing the President’s America First Asia policy at the NSC,” Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement. She did not say why the nomination was withdrawn but added that an outside voice like McGuire’s should not be used to speculate.

Heid was previously on the staff of the House of Representatives’ Select Committee on China, which supported global restrictions on AI chips introduced by the administration of former President Joe Biden and U.S. restrictions on business with Chinese biotech firms. 

The Trump administration has said it plans to rescind the global chip curb regulation and in July reversed an April decision to restrict the sale of AI chips including Nvidia’s H20 to China.

(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Nia Williams and Lincoln Feast.)