US industry, lawmakers plead with Trump: Don't open door to Chinese cars at Xi summit

By David Lawder and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, May 11 (Reuters) - As President Donald Trump prepares to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, the U.S. auto industry and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are hammering him with a simple message: Please don't offer China any access to the U.S. car market.

Trump in January told the Detroit Economic Club that it ‌would be "great" if Chinese automakers wanted to build plants in the U.S. and employ Americans, adding: "I love that. Let China come in, let Japan come in."

His comments rang alarm bells in an industry ‌that had systematically lobbied successive administrations to bar Chinese cars from the U.S. market with tough data security rules and high tariffs on electric vehicles.

So automakers, suppliers, steelmakers, unions and politicians have redoubled their efforts, arguing that Chinese automakers, with limitless state support, massive scale, an ​EV technology edge and rock-bottom prices, would crush domestic and other foreign producers, hollowing out the core of the U.S. manufacturing base.

Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan went to the same forum in Detroit on Thursday specifically to urge Trump not to make a deal with Xi to allow Chinese investment in the U.S. auto sector that brings Chinese-brand cars into U.S. dealerships.

"Please don't make a bad deal," said Slotkin, who also promoted her bipartisan bill with Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio that would explicitly bar Chinese vehicles over data collection concerns.

Their Connected Vehicle Security Act, which has a bipartisan companion bill in the House of Representatives, would codify a data rule effectively banning Chinese vehicles implemented by former ‌President Joe Biden, making a reversal extremely difficult.

The House bill would go further, ⁠banning industry partnerships with Chinese companies. Congressional aides told Reuters that with broad support, the legislation could pass this year, possibly attached to a transportation spending bill.

"Every vehicle on American roads is a rolling data collection device, capturing information on location, movement, people, and infrastructure in real time, and we cannot allow Chinese vehicles or components to be ⁠a part of that system," sponsoring representatives Debbie Dingell, a Democrat, and John Moolenaar, a Republican, said in a joint statement.

They are both from auto-heavy districts in Michigan. Some 74 House Democrats and 52 House Republicans signed letters recently urging Trump not to allow Chinese automakers to enter the American market.