Ranking Member Khanna Demands Answers from Bessent on Trump-Xi Summit and China’s Unfair Trade Practices

WASHINGTON – Today, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent demanding answers about the Trump Administration’s economic strategy toward the People’s Republic of China, arguing that President Trump’s recent summit with CCP leader Xi Jinping failed to produce meaningful progress on the structural economic challenges posed by Beijing’s unfair trading practices that have very real impacts on workers and American families.

In the letter, Khanna raised concerns that the summit resulted primarily in an extension of the existing trade truce rather than concrete commitments from Beijing to address industrial overcapacity, dumping, state subsidies, forced technology transfer, critical minerals, and other unfair economic practices.

“At a time when American families are struggling with high costs and American workers continue to lose good-paying jobs, the Administration cannot afford to substitute pageantry for a strategy that rebuilds American economic strength,” Khanna wrote.

Khanna pointed to continued U.S. dependence on critical minerals from the PRC, Beijing’s subsidization of automobile production, and the continued expansion of subsidized steel exports as examples of pressing challenges that the Trump Administration has failed to meaningfully address. 

He also raised concerns about the Administration’s decision to extend the trade truce despite Beijing’s failure to fulfill prior trade commitments.

The letter asks Secretary Bessent to provide answers by October 29, 2026, including:

• What economic issues did President Trump raise with President Xi?
  • Please provide a detailed account of the discussion regarding industrial overcapacity, dumping, state subsidies, forced technology transfer, critical minerals, and other unfair economic practices.
• Why did the Administration not seek to make progress on more substantive commitments at the summit?
• Has this more cooperative orientation in the Administration’s approach to Beijing been formalized in any policy or strategy document?
• To what extent did the Administration seek input from stakeholders such as organized labor, Congress, industry, and civil society to inform the agenda for Xi’s visit?
• To what extent will public input be sought for further Board of Trade actions like the one announced on September 27, 2026?

“American workers need more than reassuring rhetoric and presidential pageantry,” Khanna concluded. “They need a government that recognizes the scale of China's industrial strategy and responds with a strategy of its own. The Administration should explain to Congress and the American people what that strategy is—and why President Trump did not use this summit to demand meaningful commitments from Xi Jinping on the economic threats we face today.”

Read the letter to Treasury Secretary Bessent HERE.

###