Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has made inbound manufacturing investment a central part of his economic message. In his telling, the relevant question is not where capital comes from but whether factories are built in the United States and jobs go to U.S. workers. Yet one country remains a glaring exception to that logic: China. As U.S. and Chinese trade officials prepare for talks in Paris ahead of a possible meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, that exception deserves scrutiny.

Trump’s openness to Chinese investment is not entirely new, despite his previous singling out of China as an economic opponent. On the campaign trail in September 2024, he said he wanted to lure factories from abroad, including from China, with low taxes and light regulation. In remarks at the Detroit Economic Club on Jan. 13, he was blunter still: “Let China come in.”

Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has made inbound manufacturing investment a central part of his economic message. In his telling, the relevant question is not where capital comes from but whether factories are built in the United States and jobs go to U.S. workers. Yet one country remains a glaring exception to that logic: China. As U.S. and Chinese trade officials prepare for talks in Paris ahead of a possible meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, that exception deserves scrutiny.

Trump’s openness to Chinese investment is not entirely new, despite his previous singling out of China as an economic opponent. On the campaign trail in September 2024, he said he wanted to lure factories from abroad, including from China, with low taxes and light regulation. In remarks at the Detroit Economic Club on Jan. 13, he was blunter still: “Let China come in.”

Resistance in Washington is strong and has been entrenched for years across Congress and much of the U.S. policy system. That resistance rests on both ideological and security grounds: In much of Washington, even Chinese........

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