ICYMI: Senators Kim, Coons and Colleagues Release Joint Statement Raising Alarm about President Trump’s Steep Concessions to Beijing

July 31, 2025

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, Senator Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ranking Member of the Senate Subcommittee on National Security and International Trade and Finance, alongside Ranking Senate Defense Appropriator Chris Coons (D-Del.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Senate Armed Services Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.), Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations Ranking Member Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Senate Armed Services Committee member Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Senate Intelligence Committee member Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and Senate Armed Services Committee member Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) released the following statement about public reporting that President Trump is pausing export controls on critical technology sold to China as part of an effort to secure a trade deal with Beijing:  

“President Trump has spent the past six months eroding our advantages over China, but recent developments make clear how willing his administration is to sacrifice American economic and technological leadership for symbolic “wins” with China in its self-inflicted trade war.  

“In just the last two days, we have seen reporting that the Trump administration has cancelled a long-planned high-level security dialogue with Taiwan and denied the president of Taiwan the ability to transit the United States—a longstanding tradition respected by administrations of both parties. These developments come right on the heels of a decision to pave the way for the sale of advanced AI chips to China and to freeze export controls on additional American technologies enabling them to now flow to China, even as Beijing tightens export controls on the United States. Independent media reports today suggest these moves are an attempt to secure trade concessions, curry favor with President Xi Jinping, and ensure President Trump gets a visit to China. The president is demonstrating to Beijing that he can be cajoled into giving up America’s core interests. 

“In the face of lackluster domestic economic forecasts and anemic interest from Beijing in achieving a real breakthrough in talks, President Trump and his economic team have ceded leverage and negotiating power to Beijing in a desperate attempt to lure President Xi to a meeting with President Trump. Even more dangerously, they risk putting American national security, technological advantage, and economic prosperity on the chopping block in order to do so.  

“President Trump is handing our primary geopolitical adversary the keys to the castle of 21st century global technological dominance. Doing so will enable Chinese leadership in artificial intelligence, infusing the Chinese military with the technological advantage it needs to continue hostile operations across the globe. He is signaling his ambivalence about standing with Taiwan, our long-term partner in the region and a powerhouse of the global economy. And he is emboldening Beijing to take aggressive actions and seek even more aggressive concessions in whatever trade negotiations may follow. 

“President Trump and this administration must reset their dangerously weak approach to China and make clear they will no longer accept symbolic wins in exchange for steep American concessions. An administration convinced it can renegotiate the world order needs to stop negotiating against itself.” 

Senator Kim has continued to emphasize his commitment to foster American alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region as a means to long-term security and economic prosperity for the United States, including previously highlighting the economic benefit of cooperating on emerging technologies like AI to ensure a competitive edge over China. Last week, during a Congressional Executive Commission on China hearing, Senator Kim emphasized the damage and consequences of the Trump administration’s policies ceding strength and global influence to China. He has also previously outlined the dangers of the Trump administration’s policies that cut America off from both economic opportunity and critical security partnerships, warning that these policies risk turning America from being the indispensable nation into being the unreliable nation. 

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