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1 [1] (September 28, 2023)

handle is hein.crs/govenas0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Servic informing the legisi itive debate since 1914 China Primer: U.S.-China Relati Introduction Congressional oversight and legislative activities related to the People's Republic of China (PRC or China) have expanded as Members' concerns about PRC policies, actions, and intentions have intensified. Upon his election as House Speaker in the 118th Congress, Kevin McCarthy identified the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) as the second of two U.S. long-term challenges for the House to address, the first being the national debt. Members of the 118th Congress have so far introduced more than 400 bills and nearly 70 resolutions with provisions related to China. Enacted laws include S. 619 (P.L. 118-2), the COVID Origin Act of 2023, requiring the declassification of all information related to potential links between the PRC's Wuhan Institute of Virology and the COVID-19 pandemic. Other adopted measures include H.Res. 11, establishing a Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. The Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Administration describes the United States as engaged in competition with China over the shape of the future global order, part of a broader contest between democracies and autocracies. The Administration's October 2022 National Security Strategy describes China as America's most consequential geopolitical challenge, and outlines a three-part strategy for out-competing China. That strategy calls for the United States to (1) invest in competitiveness, innovation, resilience, and democracy at home; (2) align U.S. efforts with those of allies and partners; and (3) compete responsibly with the PRC to defend our interests and build our vision for the future. The document states that the Administration also seeks to engage constructively with the PRC wherever we can. Senior PRC officials have publicly objected to the U.S. framing of relations as driven by geopolitical competition. In downplaying the competitive dynamics of the relationship, the PRC may seek to sustain access to the U.S. market and to complicate U.S. efforts to build international coalitions to address certain PRC actions. Meeting with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken in Beijing in June 2023, the PRC's top leader, CPC General Secretary and PRC President Xi Jinping called for the United States and China to find the right way to get along based on mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation. When PRC leaders acknowledge the deterioration in China's relations with other countries, they often portray China as a victim. Speaking to members of a PRC political advisory body in March 2023, Xi alleged that since 2017, Western countries led by the United States have implemented all-around containment, encirclement and Updated September 28, 2023 ons suppression of China, which has brought unprecedented severe challenges to our country's development. BlaterM Engagement For the first two years of the Biden Administration, publicly-reported in-person interactions between U.S. and PRC officials at all levels were limited. That situation was related, in part, to the PRC government's decision to keep China's borders mostly closed for nearly three years to enforce a zero-COVID approach to the COVID-19 pandemic. No Members of Congress have visited China since 2019. When Presidents Biden and Xi met in November 2022 on the sidelines of a gathering of the G-20 nations in Bali, Indonesia, it was their first, and so-far only, in-person meeting in their current positions. Both governments appeared to see the 2022 Biden-Xi meeting as an opportunity to reduce volatility in the bilateral relationship. Biden stated at the time, We're going to compete vigorously. But I'm not looking for conflict, I'm looking to manage this competition responsibly. Biden and Xi agreed that Secretary Blinken would travel to the PRC for further discussions. Public reports of a PRC surveillance balloon flying over the continental United States led Blinken to call off a planned February 2023 trip. Blinken ultimately visited the PRC in June 2023. Two other Biden Administration cabinet members followed him: Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen (July 2023) and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo (August 2023). Other senior Administration visitors to the PRC have included Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns (May 2023) and Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry (April and September 2021 and July 2023). High-level engagement may be building toward a second in-person meeting between Biden and Xi on the sidelines of a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping's leaders in San Francisco in mid-November 2023. Xi has not so far confirmed his attendance. Critics, including some Members of Congress, have questioned the Biden Administration's focus on re-starting high-level dialogue. They suggest that the effort may constrain the Administration's inclination or ability to address U.S. concerns about such matters as PRC surveillance operations directed at the United States, intelligence operations in Cuba, and cyber hacking of U.S. agency networks. Critics also suggest that Washington may make concessions to secure meetings, such as holding off on using its authorities to address PRC actions of concern. In May 2023, Blinken defended the value of dialogue, arguing, while we have a real competition with China, we also want to make sure that doesn't veer into conflict. And the most important starting point for that are [sic] regular