House Lawmakers Visit China For First Time Since 2019

Four House lawmakers are in China for a rare trip to Beijing during the lower chamber’s one-week break to advocate for more dialogue between both superpowers.

Democratic Washington Rep. Adam Smith, the lead Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, is leading members of Congress on the first formal House visit to China in six years. Smith said that the overarching goal of lawmakers’ visit is to push for more communication between the U.S. and Chinese militaries.

“We’re very focused on our military-to-military conversations,” Smith said in his opening remarks during a meeting with China’s Premier Li Qiang, who holds the second-highest political rank in the Chinese government. “As a member of the Armed Services Committee, I’m deeply concerned that our two militaries don’t communicate more.”

The bipartisan delegation also includes Republican Rep. Michael Baumgartner of Washington and Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Chrissy Houlahan. The lawmakers’ visit to China is expected to conclude on Thursday.

U.S.-China relations have declined precipitously since House lawmakers’ last trip in 2019. The countries’ relationship has suffered from tensions over the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, trade, the flow of fentanyl into the United States and the status of self-governing Taiwan, which Beijing designates as its own territory.

“We can both acknowledge that both China and the U.S. have work to do to strengthen that relationship, which should not be, what, seven, six years between visits from the U.S. House of Representatives,” Smith told Li. “We need more of those types of exchanges, and we are hoping, to your words, that this will break the ice and we will begin to have more of these types of exchanges.