BEIJING – A U.S. lawmaker heading a bipartisan congressional delegation to Beijing on Tuesday noted that the United States and China are not effectively communicating on critical issues.
The delegation, led by Rep. Adam Smith, a Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, marks the first visit from the House of Representatives to China since 2019. This trip occurs amidst escalating tensions between the two nations regarding trade, technology, and differing perspectives on international conflicts.
The aim of the trip, Smith said, is to increase dialogue between the two sides.
“You have to be willing to start the process of saying, ‘Okay, this is where I’m coming from, where are you coming from?’ And we’re not even at that point yet. We’re still sort of talking past each other,” Smith commented on Tuesday.
The U.S. delegation expressed a desire for China to take significant steps in curbing the inflow of fentanyl into the U.S. and voiced concerns over China’s limitations on the world’s rare earth supply, according to a statement from the House Armed Services Committee on Monday.
Smith also expressed worry on Tuesday about the dangerously close operational proximity of the U.S. and Chinese militaries, urging more dialogue from the Chinese side.
“We’ve seen this with our ships and our planes, their ships, their planes, coming entirely too close to one another,” he told reporters. “At the height of the Cold War, we had regular conversations, regular treaties with the Soviet Union.”
In October 2023, the U.S. military said that a Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of an American bomber over the South China Sea.
Smith added he hoped for more engagement overall with Beijing.
“Many things that seemed intractable and impossible — once you actually start talking from the standpoint of ‘Let’s try and resolve this’ — it is unbelievable what you can accomplish,” he said.
The delegation met with Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun and separately with Vice Premier He Lifeng on Monday after holding talks with Premier Li Qiang on Sunday.
The U.S. and Chinese militaries suspended communications with each other for over a year starting in August 2022, following a visit by then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan. The visit angered Beijing, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary.
A group of U.S. senators visited Beijing in 2023.
China and the U.S. restored military dialogue in November 2023 after a rare meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and then-U.S. President Joe Biden.
But it is unclear how regularly the two militaries have communicated with each other and Smith did not address the frequency in response to reporters’ questions on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump said he would meet with Xi at a regional summit in South Korea in late October and visit China in the “early part of next year,” following a lengthy phone call between the two on Friday.
The congressional delegation to China also includes Michael Baumgartner, a Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as Ro Khanna and Chrissy Houlahan, both Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee. The lawmakers are in China until Thursday.
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