Newsmax: Rep. Kim to Newsmax: Trump Has ‘Real Leverage’ Heading Into Xi Summit | Newsmax.com
Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., said on Newsmax on Wednesday that President Donald Trump enters this week’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping holding “a lot of real leverage,” thanks to recent work by Congress and the administration on critical minerals and sanctions.
Asked on “Bianca Across the Nation” whether the meeting is about diplomacy or optics, Kim said, “It could be both.”
“These are two top world leaders getting together,” said Kim, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific.
She said topics could range from artificial intelligence to critical mineral supply chains and semiconductors.
“It could be anything and everything,” she said.
Kim said Trump would not give ground on national security and “will protect our American interests here or overseas, especially talking to President Xi Jinping.”
“President Trump is going into this summit with a lot of real leverage here,” she said. “And we have worked hard in the last year, Congress and administration, to make sure that we are at that stage.”
Kim pointed to Pax Silica, a State Department-led effort with allied nations to secure supply chains for semiconductors, artificial intelligence and critical minerals, and to plans to stockpile critical minerals while working closely with “trusted partners.”
She also cited the DOMINANCE Act, legislation she wrote with Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., that passed the House in June.
The bill would use U.S. diplomatic, development and financing tools to build mineral and energy supply chains outside China’s reach.
“The Senate is considering it,” Kim said.
Kim also noted the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, which Trump signed into law Sept. 18. The measure, named for the South Carolina Republican senator who died in July, authorizes and expands sanctions, tariffs, and other prohibitions on Russia and extends existing sanctions on Iran.
“These are all important tools,” Kim said.
She said “peace through strength” means using that leverage to produce “real, tangible, deliverable” results from the summit. Kim said she sent Trump a letter outlining priorities she hopes he will raise.
Xi was set to arrive in Washington on Wednesday for a state visit, his first to the White House in more than a decade. The two leaders are scheduled to hold their main meeting Thursday, followed by a state dinner. Trade, Taiwan, technology and China’s purchases of Iranian oil are expected to be on the agenda.
Beijing’s one-year pause on rare-earth export controls, announced last October, is set to expire Nov. 10.
