It may not command the loudest headlines, but beneath the noise of the 24-hour news cycle, one of the most consequential foreign policy meetings of our time is taking shape as President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping prepare to meet in Washington, D.C.
There is no shortage of crises competing for our world’s attention. Ukraine continues to withstand Russia’s war of aggression, conflicts persist in the Middle East, illicit fentanyl devastates our communities, and the costs of essential goods remain far too high. At first glance, these challenges may seem far removed from one another, and certainly farther from a summit in Washington.
They are not.
Underneath each of these pressures — quietly sustaining Russia and Iran, engineering fentanyl precursors, sowing disinformation and disrupting global supply chains — is a common thread: the Chinese Communist Party and its persistent pursuit of power to reshape the global order.
China is a formidable adversary, but America is not coming to the table empty-handed. Congress and the administration have taken deliberate steps to reduce the vulnerabilities Beijing has exploited for decades. Through Project Vault, launched in February, we are building a domestic critical mineral stockpile so American manufacturers are not left at the mercy of foreign supply cuts. My bipartisan DOMINANCE Act, which passed the House in June, will help make America — not China — the partner of choice for nations developing their resources.
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Last week, Trump signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act into law, giving our government stronger tools to target entities bankrolling our adversaries, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s Operation Economic Fury is directly targeting the revenue streams sustaining the Iranian regime.
This Congress has positioned America with leverage. Now is the time for Trump to translate that leverage into the results our nation and our world, need. Today, I am leading a bipartisan letter to the president outlining how he can do exactly that.
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Start with our people. American citizens should never be used as bargaining chips, yet Beijing consistently and arbitrarily detains Americans on baseless charges. On June 3, Chinese authorities detained American scholar Min Zin after he was invited to attend an academic event. Dr. Youlin Chen, another American citizen, has spent more than 600 days behind bars without trial or access to his family. And while he is a British citizen, not American, Jimmy Lai remains behind bars in Hong Kong for simply running a free press.
Trump knows that direct diplomacy can bring people home. When he personally raised the case of Pastor Ezra Jin with Xi, the pastor was released months later. Trump must look Xi in the eye and demand the immediate release of Min Zin, Youlin Chen, Jimmy Lai and every wrongfully detained American.
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We must also confront Beijing’s economic coercion head-on. China has spent decades tightening its grip on the critical minerals that power modern American life, from our smartphones and our automobiles to America’s most critical defense technologies. In June, Beijing yet again demonstrated its willingness to turn global critical mineral supply chains into shackles, placing American companies like MP Materials and USA Rare Earth on its export-control blacklist. While a short-term agreement for supply stabilization from this summit would be welcome, temporary relief cannot become permanent dependence.
Then there is the elephant in the room. Beijing cannot claim to seek global stability while helping sustain the regimes that create chaos around the world. Chinese purchases of Russian and Iranian energy fuel Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine and Tehran and its destabilizing proxies.
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Trump should make it unmistakably clear that any bank or entity helping our adversaries evade U.S. sanctions will face severe economic consequences. If Beijing wants access to the benefits of the global economy, it must abide by the rules.
Finally, peace and stability must hold in the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan produces more than 90% of the world’s most advanced semiconductors and is the United States’ fourth-largest trading partner. For our community here in Southern California, those stakes are too high to ignore.
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Our region is a gateway to the Pacific Rim, and businesses throughout my district rely directly on goods and commerce flowing safely through the Indo-Pacific. A blockade or military conflict would impact global markets and raise costs for Americans already stretching every dollar.
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That is why what happens in Washington this week matters more than the news cycle can tell. Foreign policy may be negotiated in diplomatic halls, but its consequences are felt at ports, factories, mom-and-pop shops and kitchen tables across our nation.
President Trump will enter the room on Sept. 24, with undeniable leverage. If he uses it to secure clear, verifiable commitments, history will remember this summit not just for what was said across the table, but for what changed because of it.
