By David Brunnstrom
WASHINGTON, Sept 18 (Reuters) – The Republican chair of the US congressional committee on China on Friday urged President Donald Trump to take a tough line in his summit with Xi Jinping next week, warning against concessions and calling for tighter technology restrictions and consequences for China’s alleged support for Iran.
The outreach reflects concerns among China hawks in Washington that Trump could offer too many concessions in his summit with Xi, aimed at stabilizing US-China relations.
In a letter to Trump, John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, said Trump should raise reports that Chinese entities provided targeting support for Iranian strikes that killed US service members, describing such support as a major escalation.
He said Trump should make it clear to China’s ruling Communist Party that enabling adversaries like Iran “is tantamount to an act of war against the United States and will be met with the most severe consequences,” he wrote.
Moolenaar also called for redoubled efforts to prevent China from accessing American AI technologies and US and allied semiconductor manufacturing technology, stressing that China remained the United States’ “foremost foreign adversary and greatest external threat.”
China hardliners are concerned Trump soften US support for democratically ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its own and which Washington is obliged by law to provide with the means to defend itself.
In a reference to Taiwan and US allies in Asia, Moolenaar said Chinese objections to US arms sales and security cooperation should be “rejected out of hand.” He also said the administration must maintain pressure on Beijing over the detention of US citizens, something he termed “hostage diplomacy.”
Trump said Xi pressed him on US arms sales to Taiwan during his May visit to Beijing and the US president later described a pending package worth up to $14 billion as a “negotiating chip.”
People familiar with Chinese efforts say Beijing also hopes to persuade Trump to state publicly that the US opposes Taiwan’s independence, instead of saying only that it does not support independence, which has been Washington’s formulation for decades.
Any US shift on Taiwan would be highly controversial, raising questions about Washington’s resolve to defend the island and provoking opposition in Congress.
On Sunday, Trump brushed aside the report that Iran acquired satellite images of a base in Jordan from Chinese entities before an attack that killed three US troops there in July, saying that both China and the US spy on each other.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Don Durfee and David Gaffen)
