Congressman John Moolenaar Chairman of the Select Committee on the CCP | Official Website
Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) has sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, raising concerns about Chinese investment in critical U.S. industries. The letter expresses support for President Trump’s America First Investment Policy and warns against allowing expanded market access for 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,” Moolenaar wrote in his letter.
Moolenaar referenced recent actions by the Trump administration aimed at limiting Chinese investments considered risky. These include requiring HieFo Corporation to divest from Emcore Corporation and a Justice Department enforcement action against Suirui Corporation. He argued that Chinese companies benefit from government subsidies, preferential financing, and regulatory protections not available to U.S. competitors, and that these advantages would continue if such firms operated within the United States.
He further stated: “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."
Moolenaar also highlighted concerns regarding specific sectors: “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.”
On automotive issues, he wrote: “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.”
The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party examines economic and security challenges posed by China while developing policy recommendations (official website). The committee is bipartisan within the U.S. House of Representatives (official website) and proposes legislation intended to strengthen U.S. competitiveness (official website).
Read the full letter here.
