Republican Rep. John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, wrote to President Donald Trump on Thursday (September 18), urging him to coordinate with allies to use the aviation sector as leverage to counter Beijing’s restrictions on rare earth exports.
In his letter, Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, called for additional measures to increase the leverage of the United States and its allies in negotiations with Beijing.
In his letter, Müllner suggested:
- Restrict or suspend landing rights for Chinese airlines in the United States and allies until China resumes the full, non-discriminatory flow of rare earth and magnet exports.
- Review export control policies regarding commercial aircraft, parts, and maintenance services to China.
- Coordinate with key allies to restrict foreign investment in China’s aviation sector.
“Acted individually, these steps would make sense. Acting together as a coalition, they would send a clear signal to China that it cannot choke off critical supplies to our defense industry without endangering its own strategic sectors,” he wrote. “Such an approach would strengthen your Russia strategy, extend allied solidarity, and create real leverage over Beijing.”
Rare earths and their magnets are crucial to advanced manufacturing and the defense industry, and the supply of rare earths is a key issue in the current U.S.-China trade negotiations.
Late last month, President Trump said China had a “monopoly” on the world’s magnets. But he said the United States had stronger leverage over China in acquiring rare earths.
Trump mentioned at the time that the United States “is now investing heavily in magnets, just from a national security perspective.
” “But we have something very powerful in our hands – aircraft parts. They have a lot of Boeing planes. They have 200 planes that can’t fly. Based on what he (Xi Jinping) said, I sent them all. I sent them all the parts so that their planes can fly. I could have withheld them, but because of my relationship with them, I didn’t. Now their planes are flying,” he said when talking about the trade situation with China.
“They had 200 planes that couldn’t fly because we deliberately wouldn’t give them parts for Boeing because they wouldn’t give us magnets,” Trump said.
He mentioned that the United States has “far more powerful” leverage against China, namely tariffs.
“They have some cards, we have incredible cards, but I don’t want to play those cards. If I played those cards, it would destroy China. I’m not going to play those cards,” Trump said.
In his letter Thursday, Representative Mullenauer praised President Trump’s leadership in rallying G7 allies to impose tariffs on China for its support of Russia. He also praised Trump’s decisive action to strengthen the U.S. supply chain for critical minerals. Mullenauer also said that parallel efforts and coordinated actions with allies will further strengthen President Trump’s negotiating power with Beijing.
