US party heads to China to examine national security implications of trade relationship
The fact-finding mission by members of a congressional advisory body is the first of its kind since 2019
Delegates representing a United States congressional advisory panel are making their first trip to China in seven years to investigate how the two countries’ economic and trade relationship affects national security.
The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission has requested meetings with Chinese government officials, academics and industry leaders in key technology sectors such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology and robotics.
It said it would also meet with US diplomats and American companies operating in China during this week’s fact-finding trip.
“We are not travelling to reset the relationship. We are travelling to understand it,” the commission’s chairman Randall Schriver said on Sunday.
The commission is an independent panel established by Congress in 2000 to advise lawmakers on the national security implications of the US-China trade and economic relationship.
It last visited mainland China before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019 – amid the heightened trade tensions that marked Donald Trump’s first term as president – and also visited Hong Kong in May that year.
