House Democrats have publicly criticized the administration's recent decision to halt a set of technology-related restrictions aimed at Chinese companies, warning that the pause undermines U.S. national security in favor of smoothing relations with Beijing. The lawmakers' concerns are set out in a letter sent to Commerce Department Secretary Howard Lutnick and seen by Reuters.
In the letter, Democrats flagged specific measures that were shelved, including a ban on China Telecom’s operations within the United States and proposed prohibitions on U.S. sales of routers manufactured by TP-Link. The correspondence also questioned the halting of planned moves to restrict the U.S. internet operations of China Unicom and China Mobile. Reuters reported the administration's decision to pause these actions on Feb. 12.
Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Sydney Kamlager-Dove, the ranking Democrat on that panel’s South and Central Asia Subcommittee, co-authored the letter. They wrote: "The Administration’s actions suggest a troubling pattern of sacrificing America’s national and economic security to stabilize relations with China and resolve the trade war the President himself started."
The lawmakers asked Secretary Lutnick to provide the committee with any internal assessments the Commerce Department prepared on the national security and technology security consequences of the decisions. They also requested clarification about a Reuters report that the office responsible for reviewing foreign technology threats was instructed to focus on countries other than China.
The Commerce Department and the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Democrats’ unease forms part of a broader wave of concern among party members that the administration is scaling back U.S. government actions that could be seen as hostile to Beijing. That shift comes after a high-level trade truce between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump in October, according to the lawmakers' letter.
The letter also notes that the President is scheduled to travel to China from March 31 to April 2 for a meeting with President Xi. In addition to the measures involving telecom companies and routers, the administration has paused proposed restrictions that would have blocked sales of Chinese-made electric trucks and buses in the United States, as well as a ban on Chinese equipment sales intended for U.S. data centers, Reuters reported.
Democrats are seeking transparency about the rationale for shelving these policies and whether national security tradeoffs were fully evaluated. Their request for briefings aims to establish whether the Commerce Department assessed the potential impacts on U.S. technology infrastructure and economic security before pausing the actions.
Contextual note - The letter and the paused measures involve multiple sectors, including telecommunications, commercial networking hardware, electric vehicle supply and data center infrastructure. Lawmakers emphasized the potential implications for national and economic security in seeking more information from the Commerce Department.