Senators To Call On Thune To Immediately Bring Bipartisan China Export-Control Bills To The Floor; Demand Tougher Controls On Advanced AI Chips & Chipmaking Equipment

Washington, D.C. - Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke at a press conference ahead of Donald Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping demanding that Trump block Chinese access to American AI chips and manufacturing equipment. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Today as Trump wines and dines President Xi at the White House he has a choice to make: once again bend the knee to the CCP or to stand up to Xi and defend our national security and keep [the] U.S. ahead of China on AI.

That's why today we are calling on Trump to stand up for the nation's security by once and for all blocking China's access to our AI chips and manufacturing equipment.

President Trump must draw a hard line. Do not weaken America's export controls. Do not give China greater access to the advanced chips and chip-making equipment it needs to close the gap with the United States. Why? Because Trump is currently giving away our greatest advantage in the AI race by greenlighting the sale of advanced AI chips to China.

China's always been desperate to get our AI chips, they've set up elaborate ways to smuggle them, something the Trump administration has failed to stop and has only made easier for them to acquire. As we've been warning for years, Trump cannot let the CCP get its hands on our most advanced chips and the manufacturing equipment needed to produce them.

Trump could take action today to make this happen.

A bipartisan group of senators has introduced legislation to update and strengthen our export controls. They are the MATCH Act, the AI OVERWATCH Act, and the Chip Security Act. We have worked with Republican partners. Each of these is a bipartisan piece of legislation in both chambers to include this critical legislation in the NDAA negotiations. The Senate could pass all three bills today and protect our national security and keep U.S. AI tech out of China's hands.

Trump is the very first president who has negotiated away our export controls, our national security to the Chinese. Put simply, Trump is handing China the technology it needs to win the AI race. Trump said, "the only [control or] guardrails [that] AI needs is a strong and smart (HIGH IQ) president."

Well that's as wrong as it is stupid. We must reject the false choice Trump keeps making. 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.

So, it's time for Trump to stand up to Xi for the sake of American and global security. Trump: stop fawning over strongmen. Stop calling Xi a great gentleman. We must act now before it's too late.

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