According to the office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a bipartisan delegation from the U.S. Senate will go to China, Japan, and South Korea in October. Republican Mike Crapo, whose office previously stated that the trip is scheduled for next week and that the senators intend to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, will co-lead the delegation of six senators.
Earlier this year, Schumer encouraged senators to start new legislation addressing concerns about the second-largest economy in the world. Schumer has consistently urged the United States to take a tougher stance on China. The journey comes after a string of trips by Biden administration representatives, including Gina Raimondo, the secretary of commerce, in August.
According to Schumer’s office, the trip aims to boost American economic and national security interests. It will include discussions with each country’s government and business community officials and representatives from American firms doing business there.
Schumer “will focus on the need for reciprocity in China for U.S. businesses that will level the playing field for American workers, as well as on maintaining U.S. leadership in advanced technologies for national security,” according to his office.
Republicans Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy, as well as Democrats Maggie Hassan and Jon Ossoff, are among the other senators traveling. According to a statement released by the Chinese foreign ministry on Wednesday, China welcomes Schumer’s visit and believes it would enhance the U.S. Senate’s “objective” understanding of China and encourage discussions between the two countries’ legislative bodies.
In August, Raimondo said that American businesses had complained to her that China had become “uninvestable,” citing fines, raids, and other steps that had made doing business there unsafe.
She said that companies face “exorbitant fines without any explanation, revisions to the counterespionage law, which are unclear and sending shock waves through the U.S. community; raids on businesses – a whole new level of challenge and we need that to be addressed.” “For U.S. business in many cases, patience is running thin, and it’s time for action,” she said.
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