Agenda for Trump in China includes key issues for NY, LI
President Donald Trump Chinese President Xi Jinping meeting last year in South Korea. Credit: AP/Mark Schiefelbein
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is set to land in Beijing on Wednesday for two days of high-stakes meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping that will largely focus on trade and national security.
Members of Long Island’s congressional delegation say they’ll be watching how Trump handles a number of issues that have potential local implications, including whether he accepts a deal that would ease restrictions on China purchasing U.S.-made microchips and other advanced technology systems, many of which are developed in New York.
Trump’s meeting with Xi comes amid rising gas prices at home stemming from the U.S. war on Iran, a key ally of China, and as the president confronts rising inflation, with Labor Department data showing consumer prices were up 3.8% in April from a year earlier, the fastest rate of growth since May 2023.
Trump, speaking to reporters Tuesday before departing for China, dismissed questions about the economic data, saying gas prices would drop once the conflict with Iran concludes, and promising a "great" meeting with Xi, whom he last visited in China in 2017 during his first term.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- As President Donald Trump arrives in Beijing Wednesday, members of Long Island’s congressional delegation say they’ll be closely watching how Trump handles a number of issues that have potential local implications.
- Trump’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping comes amid rising gas prices at home stemming from the U.S. war on Iran, a key ally of China, and as the president confronts rising inflation.
- Speaking to reporters Tuesday before his trip, Trump dismissed questions about the economic data, saying gas prices would drop once the conflict with Iran concludes, and promising a "great" meeting with Xi.
Microchips
With China reportedly floating a deal that calls for $1 trillion in Chinese investment in the United States in exchange for a loosening of restrictions on Chinese purchases of U.S. technology, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on Trump to reject any such deals.
"We can’t let Trump willingly give China our superior American technology or allow him to serve Taiwan to the Chinese Communist Party on a silver platter just so he can get the satisfaction of saying he made a deal," Schumer said in a Senate floor speech Tuesday. "If Donald Trump wants America to outcompete China, he cannot let Xi Jinping take him for a ride."
Trump did not respond to reporters' shouted questions about the potential deal on Tuesday.
Over the past decade, the United States has limited the ability of China to purchase U.S.-made microchips and other advanced technology, including artificial intelligence systems, citing concerns that China would later replicate the technology.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, also raised concerns about China’s theft of U.S. intellectual property, particularly advances in artificial intelligence.
"China has spent years stealing American secrets, burrowing into our critical infrastructure and passing off our own intellectual property as their own," Garbarino said in an email to Newsday. "Now Beijing is doing the same thing with AI. President Trump has been clear that he will not let China subvert American economic and national security interests, and I am confident that he will deliver that same message again this week."
Political prisoners
Ahead of Trump’s trip, Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers urging the president to demand the release of a number of Chinese political prisoners.
Suozzi, in a House floor speech Tuesday, called on China to prioritize the release of five political prisoners, including Jimmy Lai, 78, a pro-democracy businessman from Hong Kong who has been imprisoned since 2020 for his criticism of China’s communist system.
"We urge the Chinese Communist Party to stop defending the indefensible, and enhance China’s standing in the world by working with President Donald Trump to finally get this done," Suozzi said of releasing the prisoners.
Suozzi played a role last year alongside Schumer and Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) in pressing for the release of Kai Li, a Huntington resident who was imprisoned in China for eight years on espionage charges. Li, who refuted the espionage charges, was released last May after a yearslong campaign to draw attention to his case.
Economic deals
LaLota said he expects Trump to take a tough posture against Xi as they negotiate new trade deals.
"Under presidents of both parties, America allowed China to eat our lunch by manipulating its currency, undercutting American workers with near slavelike labor, flooding our markets with cheap knockoffs that steal American intellectual property and exporting fentanyl that killed far too many young Americans," LaLota said in a statement to Newsday. "I expect [that] President Donald Trump will channel his old school NYC toughness and is the strong leader America needs, not the toothless tiger too many of his predecessors were when dealing with China."
Rep. Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre), said in a statement that Trump "must use this trip to defend the United States’ interests, its allies and its national security from Chinese aggression. In addition, he should remedy his disastrous trade war that has dramatically driven up costs for Americans."
Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.
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