👋🏾 HI, HEY, HELLO! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Daily. I hope today was everything for you. The midterms are in 41 days.
VIEW FROM THE HILL
Chinese President Xi Jinping hasn’t even arrived at the White House yet, but congressional leaders are already drawing lines around what President Donald Trump should not put on the negotiating table.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) singled out Taiwan when I asked him this afternoon what Trump should refuse to concede during Thursday’s summit and what he would need to see to consider the meeting successful.
“We don’t seek conflict with China, but we are in strategic competition in all the different areas,” Jeffries said. “Taiwan is an ally, and hopefully Donald Trump is not going to give up Taiwanese autonomy, or sovereignty, or territorial integrity in ways that will be inconsistent with what past presidents, whether they are Democrats or Republicans, have done.”
Jeffries’s warning comes as Xi is expected to press Trump on Taiwan during a state visit that will test whether the two leaders can turn their recent push for a more stable relationship into durable agreements.
Across the Capitol, Senate Democrats are focused on another potential bargaining chip: America’s most advanced artificial intelligence technology.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Banking Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sens. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) called on Trump this afternoon to block China’s access to advanced AI chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment and pressed Congress to pass three bipartisan bills tightening U.S. export controls.
The legislation would address the problem from different angles: The AI OVERWATCH Act would tighten controls on advanced AI chips, while the MATCH Act would target the equipment China needs to manufacture high-end chips itself. The Chip Security Act would establish safeguards intended to detect whether exported chips are diverted to unauthorized destinations.
“We must reject the false choice Trump keeps making,” Schumer said. “We can and must both maintain our lead on AI by restricting China’s access to our technology, and put up guardrails to mitigate AI’s risk.”
The White House defended its record but did not say whether Trump would consider relaxing export controls as part of a deal with Xi.
“These same Democrats stood idly by and twiddled their thumbs when the Biden administration freely let critical technologies flow overseas,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told me in a statement. “The Trump administration has implemented the most rigorous export control regime in modern history, and remains committed to America’s national and economic security.”
A spokesperson for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) did not respond to a request for comment on whether Johnson believes advanced AI chips and chipmaking equipment should be off the table in negotiations with Xi.
