Lawmakers Press AG on Report of Chinese Firms' Illegal Labor in US Auto Industry

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

In a new letter sent to Blanche on Wednesday morning and shared exclusively with CNBC, the lawmakers demanded an update on the report, which Congress commissioned earlier this year. It comes after CNBC joined Khanna, D-Calif., on a visit to a leading auto glass manufacturer, Vitro , which accuses a Chinese competitor, Fuyao , of undercutting prices and driving out competition.

Khanna was joined on the letter by Reps. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, Scott Perry, R-Pa., and Mike Kelly, R-Pa.

"The stability and security of the U.S. auto supplier industrial base is critically important," the lawmakers wrote in the letter. "As thousands of American workers in the auto manufacturing industry face job loss, companies with ties to the [Chinese Communist Party], or affiliated entities of those companies, are expanding their presence in communities across the country."

The lawmakers wrote that while the Chinese companies "allege a commitment to domestic employment, credible reports of labor trafficking, forced labor, and unlawful employment practices raise serious concerns that their true intent is not to contribute to the American job market, but to exploit it."

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

The bill report said the committee is concerned with "unlawful employment practices involving smuggled or undocumented labor in the stream of commerce of the U.S. auto parts and glass manufacturing industries, particularly relating to corporate entities affiliated with the CCP, and their affiliated companies."

It asked the Justice Department for a report, no less than 120 days after enactment of the bill, on the "investigative and prosecutorial steps taken against such entities implicated in forced labor supply chains, and a detailed breakdown of all related costs to carry out these efforts."

Khanna, in a statement, said the letter comes after he "spent time in the heartland as ranking member of the China Select Committee hearing from workers, manufacturers, and union leaders about the need to invest in American jobs to compete with China."

"What I heard is that they are being hurt by companies linked to the CCP, like Fuyao, that are not competing fairly and are using illegal labor practices. DOJ must release the required report on these practices that is now overdue," he said.

The lawmakers in the letter took aim specifically at 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.

The lawmakers also pointed out a raid at an automotive manufacturing plant in Ohio operated by the Chinese company Qingdao Sunsong and another raid at a manufacturing facility of Wellmade Industries in Georgia.

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

"As CCP-linked automotive supply firms or their affiliates continue to expand their presence in the U.S. market, it is critical that the DOJ and its partner agencies rigorously investigate their operations for evidence of violating U.S. trade and labor law," they said.

The members requested a response by June 19. The DOJ did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.