The Biden administration is encouraging two delegations of U.S. congressmen to visit China this autumn, the latest in a series of high-level visits as Washington debates how to repair a dangerously strained relationship with Beijing.
The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on July 13, 2023. Multiple congressional visits to China are planned for this autumn. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and Sen. Mike Crapo want an October bipartisan visit. (Source: Carlos Bongioanni/Stars and Stripes)
U.S. Biden Administration to Visit China to Keep the Communication
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) sought a bipartisan visit in October, their spokesman stated Tuesday. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told The Washington Post he wants House legislators to travel. Khanna, a member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), said he supports diplomacy with Beijing and believes “it’s important to engage and have open lines of communication between our two countries.” He expressed his hope to lead a delegation to China when the State Department deems it “appropriate.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington declined to comment. Lawmakers’ travel plans coincide with administration officials’ efforts to ease China tensions. With their growing disputes, the two nations have warned of a military clash in their trade war. White House Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited China in June, becoming the first top American diplomat to go there in five years. In July, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and President Biden’s climate change envoy John F. Kerry followed. August saw Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
Numerous Republicans are dissatisfied that China has not sent high-level representatives to Washington for negotiations. United States officials admit that the administration’s efforts have produced no results. Some Republicans consider military deterrence to be a foolish and dangerous foreign policy. Beijing has criticized the administration for enhancing Indo-Pacific military cooperation, while Republicans have labeled Vice President Biden a China appeaser.
Senate insiders claimed on the condition of confidentiality that the majority leader invited Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota), Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico), and Jeanne Shaheen to the Schumer-Crapo excursion. Who will accompany Khanna from the House is unknown. In an interview, Hagerty, who served as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Japan, stated that sending senior government officials and “certainly anyone from the United States Senate” would be “ill-advised” because the Chinese have not done so.
“Anyone who has dealt with the CCP, as I have, should know that you need to deal from a position of strength,” Hagerty stated. “That is not where we are.” He did not indicate his reaction to Schumer’s offer. In a separate interview, Cornyn told the majority leader, “I think something like this could be very important, but not at this time.”
“What I’m worried about… is that you’ve seen the number of Cabinet officials going over there and, you know, looking like they are, frankly, cow towing to the Chinese Communist Party,” he said, adding that the planned trip seemed “really dubious to me” and that he wasn’t sure “what could be accomplished
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Many of the Delegated to Visit China Declined
Although Rounds would not “second guess” other members who visit Beijing, he would not reveal if he was invited. He highlighted that U.S. legislators and officials visit nations that don’t support American democracy but with whom they need to keep ties. Rounds were dubious if such outreach to China was beneficial. “I know some people want to avoid conflict at all costs. Yes, I understand. The U.S. officials who have visited so far “have not been very well received.” He said that mutual respect is also needed.
Heinrich and Shaheen’s representatives also declined the trip. The Biden administration later described a sophisticated surveillance operation spanning “more than 40 countries across five continents” after the U.S. military shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off South Carolina earlier this year, severing U.S.-China relations. The White House did not address congressional delegation inquiries. Schumer seldom travels abroad for official business, highlighting this trip’s obvious importance to the administration. He headed a mission to Germany, India, Pakistan, and Israel this year. His previous trip to China was in 2011, two years before Xi became president.
Washington’s rising number of China hawks want stronger economic policies toward Beijing, including banning U.S. involvement in Chinese military technology businesses. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), who leads the China select committee, warned Tuesday that “China’s military could be raining missiles on our friends in Taiwan, and very likely American service members, with weapons that Americans funded.”
“In short, we’re at risk of financing our destruction,” Gallagher warned during the New York hearing on U.S.-China economic integration. During Blinken’s June visit, State Department officials said the U.S. wants to calm tensions, increase commercial flights, and combat the U.S. fentanyl crisis by targeting precursor chemicals from China. After visiting Beijing, Yellen said she discussed the government’s treatment of American companies in China and its improper use of state power to alter global markets with Chinese officials. Chinese officials criticized Trump and Biden’s tariffs and recent trade and investment restrictions on sensitive technologies.
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