Khanna, China committee press Blanche for Chinese manufacturing report

Ro Khanna, ranking member of the House China select committee, led a bipartisan group of lawmakers in pressing Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for an overdue report on illegal labor practices of Chinese companies in the U.S. auto industry.

a new letter Following the report, which was sent to Blanche on Wednesday morning and shared exclusively with CNBC, lawmakers demanded an update on the report that Congress commissioned earlier this year. This comes after CNBC joined Khanna, California, to visit a leading auto glass manufacturer. in vitroaccusing a Chinese rival, FuyaoLowering prices and eliminating competition.

In the letter to Khanna, Reps. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, Scott Perry, R-Pa. and Mike Kelly, R-Pa., also attended.

“The stability and security of the U.S. auto supplier industrial base is critical,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter. “As thousands of American workers in the auto manufacturing industry face job losses, globally connected companies [Chinese Communist Party]or subsidiaries of these companies are expanding their presence in communities across the country.”

The lawmakers wrote that although Chinese companies “claim a commitment to domestic employment, credible reports of labor trafficking, forced labor, and illegal employment practices raise serious concerns that their true intent is to exploit the American labor market, not contribute to it.”

Congress mandated the report as part of the Commerce, Justice, Science, Energy and Water Development, and Interior and Environmental appropriations bill that President Donald Trump signed in January.

The bill report said the committee was concerned with “illegal employment practices involving illegal or undocumented labor in the stream of commerce of the U.S. auto parts and glass manufacturing industries, particularly with respect to CCP-affiliated corporate entities and their affiliated companies.”

The Department of Justice requested a report, at least 120 days after the bill becomes law, on “investigative and prosecutorial steps taken against such entities involved in forced labor supply chains and a detailed breakdown of all associated costs to carry out these efforts.”

Khanna said in a statement that the letter came “after spending time at headquarters as a senior member of the China Select Committee and hearing from workers, manufacturers and union leaders about the need to invest in American jobs to compete with China.”

“From what I’ve heard, they are being harmed by companies like Fuyao that are affiliated with the CCP, that do not compete fairly and use illegal business practices. The Department of Justice should issue the necessary report on these practices, which is now overdue,” he said.

In the letter, the lawmakers specifically targeted Fuyao. Federal law enforcement in 2024 Raided Fuyao’s factory in Moraine, Ohio, as part of a civil forfeiture complaint related to an investigation into a potential $126 million illegal staffing and money laundering operation.

Lawmakers also noted the raid on an automotive manufacturing facility operated by a Chinese company in Ohio. Qingdao Sun Song and another raid on a manufacturing facility Good Production Industries in Georgia.

“The legal violations listed above do not appear to be isolated incidents, but rather evidence of a systematic pattern of abuse by CCP-affiliated companies or their affiliates operating in the United States,” they wrote.

“As CCP-affiliated automotive supply firms or their affiliates continue to expand their presence in the U.S. market, it is critical that the Department of Justice and its partner agencies rigorously investigate their operations for evidence of violations of U.S. trade and labor law,” they said.

Members requested a response by 19 June. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.