Chinese Automakers Loom Over U.S. Industry as Trump Hosts Xi

Chinese brands captured global market share nearly 70% faster over the past five years — and a rare alliance of U.S. automakers, dealers, suppliers and Democratic lawmakers wants to keep them out of America before that wave reaches the world's most lucrative car market.

The warning lands this week as President Donald Trump hosts Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday and Friday. Earlier this month, Trump said he might be "OK" letting Chinese automakers into the U.S. if they produced vehicles domestically. That comment prompted a consortium of auto trade groups — representing every major facet of the American auto industry — to urge him to reconsider. More than two dozen Democratic lawmakers followed with their own letter pressing Trump to keep existing U.S. restrictions on Chinese automakers in place.

The unified front is uncharacteristic for an industry that usually fights itself over trade policy.

"It's not at this point a partisan issue," Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., told reporters Wednesday. "It's about whether we want to make cars in America and whether we want a manufacturing base that can pivot when we need it. If we want that, we shouldn't let them in our country."

BYD and CATL founders reportedly in Xi's delegation

The Chinese delegation could include Wang Chuanfu, founder of BYD, China's largest automaker, and Robin Zeng, founder of CATL, the world's top battery maker for electric vehicles. Michael Dunne, an expert on China's automotive industry and former General Motors executive, said even the possibility that the two executives might attend underscores the stakes of Xi's trip for the U.S. auto industry.

GM CEO Mary Barra is expected to attend Trump's state dinner for Xi, Reuters reported Wednesday, along with other U.S. executives including Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Ford Motor declined to say whether CEO Jim Farley will attend, after the Department of Transportation criticized the company for its Chinese ties, including a licensing deal with CATL. Stellantis said CEO Antonio Filosa is out of the country and not planning to attend, according to Reuters.

The pressure campaign runs parallel to bipartisan bills moving through Congress that would ban Chinese automakers from the U.S. entirely.

The numbers behind the fear

Chinese automakers have expanded rapidly beyond their domestic market, especially into Europe and Central and South America. Global market share for Chinese brands jumped nearly 70% from 2020 to 2025, according to market research and consulting firm GlobalData. In Europe, their share was virtually nothing in 2020 but reached 12% in August, according to Germany-based Dataforce.

Global automakers fear that Chinese rivals like BYD and Geely — heavily subsidized by their governments — could flood markets, undercutting domestic production and vehicle prices. Dunne said the concerns are not overblown. Chinese automakers would "quickly overwhelm America's auto industry, just as it is now ravaging Europe," he said.

"China's scores of automakers are currently engaged in a fight-to-the-death price war at home," Dunne wrote in a post Monday. "There's red ink everywhere. Access to the U.S., by far the most lucrative car market in the world, is like a giant tank of life-saving oxygen."

From insular market to top exporter

For much of this century, China was one of the largest and fastest-growing car markets in the world, drawing GM and other foreign automakers with promises of massive sales. The sector has since transformed from an insular industry into the world's biggest vehicle exporter.

Experts attribute the shift to government funding, a culture of innovation and speed instilled in Chinese workers, a slowing domestic market and plant underutilization that pushed companies toward exports.

Christian Meunier, Nissan Motor chairman of the Americas, described competing against Chinese automakers outside the U.S. as a "hell of a challenge."

"They have decent product but it's all dumping," he told CNBC. "We know we're not competing with [automakers], we're competing against the governments. … They're attacking very aggressively."

Nissan, he said, is fighting back by growing global scale to lower costs and become more efficient. But Meunier expects the battle to reach American soil eventually.

"We need to get ready for the day when they come to the U.S. because it will happen one day. Hopefully not tomorrow, but it will happen one day," he said.

Dunne argued that China's ambitions differ fundamentally from those of U.S. allies, making the situation unlike past import waves from Japan and South Korea.

"As Xi Jinping has alluded to many times, the goal for China is to 'make other countries more dependent on China and China less dependent on other countries.' That's not a friendly posture," Dunne said.

The outcome of this week's summit could determine whether Detroit, its dealers and its suppliers face that competition at home — or whether the bipartisan wall holding it offshore survives the current administration.