Ro Khanna: Trump has no cards left to play ahead of the China summit
When President Trump rolls out the red carpet for Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, he will do so having failed to address Americans’ concerns about rapidly developing artificial intelligence or fulfilling his promises to rebuild U.S. manufacturing and protect jobs.
His uncoordinated and capricious economic policies have not yielded positive results. And so far, he hasn’t committed to securing a verifiable U.S.-China AI treaty to protect American workers and humanity itself.
In other words, when Trump sits down with Xi, he won’t have any cards to play.
Earlier this month, Anthropic researchers spoke out about the possibility that AI could “kill all humans” within the next decade, alerting leaders across the political spectrum. As we debate solutions, one fact is clear: We cannot compromise America’s safety and economic security.
To win the race with Beijing, we need a Marshall Plan for America and to practice what I call economic patriotism. That means responsible AI pacing and calling for a U.S.-China treaty banning practices that allow AI to advance itself autonomously. That power risks humans losing control entirely — making the recent attack by rogue AI agents on Hugging Face look like mere child’s play.
We also need to establish a national industrial development bank for American manufacturing funded by tariff revenue from Chinese imports, establish 1,000 new trade schools and reinvigorate Trade Adjustment Assistance. Congress must limit Beijing’s access to our markets by passing the Connected Vehicle Security Act, creating procurement rules that put American steelmakers first, reinstating fees on Chinese ships and passing a rare earth magnet tax credit to build the processing capacity China has spent years cornering.
Instead, Trump has been appeasing his “friend” Xi, leaving him with no leverage and nothing to show for at home. He promised that tariffs and a tough approach to China would bring factories back to the U.S., but that has not happened.
In May, I went on a tour of the American heartland. In Lordstown, Ohio, I heard about more than 1,300United Auto Workers members at the Ultium Cells battery plant who had been laid off after Trump axed the federal electric vehicle tax credit. It hurt a community’s rebound from decades of deindustrialization.
The economic pain is hitting across the country. In Amana, Iowa, Whirlpool cut hundreds of union jobs while opening a new plant in Mexico. In Eastlake, Ohio, Conn-Selmer shut its brass instrument factory for good, moving production overseas and eliminating 150 union jobs. In Fayetteville, N.C., Goodyear is eliminating 1,700 United Steelworkers jobs.
The numbers confirm what workers have been telling us. Overall, manufacturing employment is down approximately 35,000 from when Trump took office. Spending on new factory construction is down 28 percent since January 2025. Trump’s disorganized tariff policy clearly has not created the manufacturing renaissance he promised.
Meanwhile, China’s grip on critical supply chains has tightened. China still controls roughly 90 percent of global rare earth processing capacity. It builds more than half the world’s commercial ships by tonnage. It dominates battery cells, solar manufacturing and the industrial inputs that determine whether America can build anything at scale without Beijing’s support. Trump’s tariffs have not changed this and, in some cases, have expanded China’s control.
Trump has treated tariffs as the end of his China policy rather than as a tool. Tariffs can help level the playing field for U.S. industry. They cannot, by themselves, finance new factories, train welders, de-risk lenders’ balance sheets, balance sheets, break China’s dominance of key industries or replace the low-cost financing and state support that Beijing used to outbuild us in shipyards and battery plants.
If Trump had played his hand well, he could have built up leverage to pressure Xi into ending the subsidized overcapacity that lets Chinese firms dump steel, solar panels, electric vehicles and ships below cost or set limits on forced technology transfer. Trump could have used the visit as an opportunity to secure commitments on the critical minerals and rare earth exports that Beijing has shown a willingness to weaponize.
Instead of empty summitry, Trump should start building real leverage with economic patriotism at home. Instead of senseless slogans, he should use his meeting with Xi to protect the future of humanity from unchecked AI. As the top Democrat on the China Committee, I have called for an enforceable and verifiable U.S.-China AI treaty to ensure humans remain in control of our destiny.
Trump’s China manufacturing policy should be judged as he told us to judge it: by factories built, workers employed and U.S. dependence on Beijing. Trump’s meeting with Xi should be judged by whether he secures a valid AI treaty with China. By every one of those measures, the administration is behind where it started.
This week’s meeting is a real opportunity but only if Trump walks in with something more than tariffs and walks out with something more than a photo. Until he pairs trade enforcement with true investment in American workers and factories, Xi will keep arriving at these summits knowing Trump has an empty hand.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) has served as the U.S. representative from California’s 17th Congressional District since 2017.