In rare visit to China, American legislators urge better communication in the midst of tensions
Beijing – Washington and Beijing will have to communicate better if they want to resolve their various disagreements – and if they do not speak, it could be “dangerous,” American legislator said on Tuesday during a rare visit to the Congress in China.
This is the first delegation of China legislators to visit China since 2019; A group of American senators visited Beijing in 2023. Their trip occurred in the middle of tensions between the United States and China for Trade, Technology and Wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Representative Adam Smith, D-Wash., The head of the Bipartite delegation, said they were holding “robust and very useful” meetings with Chinese officials and that the travel objective was to reopen the communication lines between “the two most powerful countries in the world”.
“Our relationship will be the most substantial relationship in terms of what the world will look like for the decades to come,” Smith told journalists at the United States Embassy in Beijing. “It is really important that we work to strengthen this relationship and better understand ourselves.”
The military relationship between the United States and China is particularly worrying, he said.
The congress delegation arrived for weeks after Beijing showed its military power and its advanced weapons in a very choreographed parade.
“China is the fastest and fastest nuclear energy growth in the world. The United States has the world’s largest soldiers in the world and the largest nuclear arsenal,” said Smith. “It is dangerous for us not to have regular communications on our capacities and intentions.”
President Donald Trump and Chinese chief Xi Jinping spoke on Friday during their first telephone call since June. Trump said they had agreed during the call to meet on the touch of October 31-NOV. 1 APEC summit in South Korea and that it would visit China at the start of next year.
David Lost, the new American ambassador to China, said that the two leaders had a “big call” and “can’t wait to come together”.
“I would say that the relationship between President XI and President Trump is actually very good and very encouraging at the moment,” he said.
The other members of the delegation are the representatives. Michael Baumgartner, R-Wash.; Ro Khanna, D-Calif.; and Chrissy Houlahan, D-PA. They are in China until Thursday.
After their arrival on Sunday, legislators met Prime Minister Li Qiang, China 2 manager. On Monday, they met the Deputy Prime Minister, He Lifeng, who directed the Chinese part in the trade negotiations with the United States, and the Minister of Defense Dong Jun.
During their meeting with him, the delegation discussed talks with China, which explains the greatest American trade deficit, and urged Beijing “to help stem the flow of fentanyl in the United States and reduce non-tariff obstacles to American companies seeking to do business in China”, according to a reading of the Congress.
The delegation also discussed the future of the Tiktok video application, which faces a ban in the United States, unless its Chinese parent company sells its American assets to American owners, as well as the question of critical minerals and the export controls of Beijing have sought to impose them because it takes advantage of its almost monopoly in the industry.
During their meeting with Dong, legislators stressed the importance of greater communication between the United States and the Chinese military to avoid a calculation error and conflicts.
Communications between the soldiers were suspended from August 2022 after the representative Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., The president of the Chamber at the time, said Beijing by visiting Taiwan, an autonomous island democracy that China claims as a territory. They were restored in November 2023 after a meeting in the United States between XI and President Joe Biden.
Legislators visiting China said that the American military presence in Asia-Pacific “should not be interpreted as a threat to China”, that they have asked for a peaceful resolution to Taiwan’s question and that the conflict between the United States and China “should not be inevitable.”
Speaking before their meeting, Dong said that the visit “shows a good phase of communications from China-States, and I think it’s the right thing to do”.
Janis MacKey Frayer reported Beijing and Jennifer Jett from Hong Kong.
