Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., and 73 other House Democrats sent President Donald Trump a letter urging him to keep Chinese automakers out of the U.S. market and warning that any concession at his planned mid-May summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing would threaten American manufacturing, workers, and national security.
The letter, led by Dingell and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee on China, asks Trump to maintain tariffs, block Chinese-owned manufacturing on U.S. soil, and bar vehicles built by Chinese-controlled entities in Canada or Mexico from qualifying for benefits under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
The signers also press the administration to expand restrictions on Chinese-connected vehicle technologies and to coordinate with allies against Beijing's state-driven auto strategy.
The Democrats frame the issue as both an economic and a security policy issue, citing an industry that supports roughly 10 million U.S. jobs and accounts for about 5% of gross domestic product.
They argue that state subsidies, below-market financing, and labor practices, including what the letter calls credible reports of forced labor, give Chinese automakers an edge that no U.S. company operating under fair labor standards can match.
To show the scale, the letter says Chinese brands now hold roughly 62% of the global electric vehicle market and that China exported more than 8 million vehicles in 2025, expanding into South America, the Middle East, and Europe.
The political backdrop is direct.
In January at the Detroit Economic Club, Trump signaled openness to Chinese carmakers building plants in the United States, telling the audience, "If they want to come in and build a plant and hire you and hire your friends and your neighbors, that's great, I love that."
The letter opens by objecting to those remarks and tells Trump the issue "must remain a firm and non-negotiable priority" before the Beijing meeting.
The lawmakers point to North America as the pressure point, citing a sharp rise in Chinese vehicle imports into Mexico from 2021 to 2025 and a Canadian shift this past January that lowered tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in exchange for Beijing easing duties on Canadian farm products, including canola seeds, with the new quota potentially reaching 70,000 vehicles a year by 2030.
The operative U.S. restriction is a Commerce Department rule finalized under President Joe Biden on Jan. 16, 2025, and effective March 17, 2025, that bars the import and sale of passenger connected vehicles with hardware or software tied to China or Russia, with software prohibitions phasing in for model year 2027 and hardware for model year 2030.
The Dingell letter asks Trump to broaden those limits across all vehicle classes.
No Republicans signed on, though concern crosses party lines. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, has said he plans legislation to seal the U.S. market from Chinese vehicles in hardware, software, and partnerships.
Reuters reported earlier this month that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., along with Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., sent Trump a parallel letter.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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