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1 [1] (October 18, 2023)

handle is hein.crs/govenfh0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service infwrrning the Iegislative debate sinco 1914 China Primer: U.S.-China Relations ntroduction 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. Members of the 118th Congress have so far introduced more than 400 bills and 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. Strategic Competition 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 calls for the United States to out-compete China by (1) investing in competitiveness, innovation, resilience, and democracy at home; (2) aligning U.S. efforts with those of allies and partners; and (3) compet[ing] 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. Meeting in October 2023 with a bipartisan Senate delegation-the first congressional delegation to visit the PRC in over four years-the PRC's top leader, Communist Party of China (CPC) General Secretary and PRC President Xi Jinping, called for the United States and China to properly handle their relations, respect each other, coexist in peace and pursue win-win cooperation. In downplaying competitive dynamics in 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 perceived challenges from the PRC. When PRC leaders acknowledge frayed relations with other countries, they often portray China as a victim. In March 2023, Xi alleged that since 2017, Western countries led by the United States have implemented all-around containment, encirclement and suppression of China, which has brought unprecedented severe challenges to our country's development. Bilateral Engagement The PRC government kept China's borders mostly closed from March 2020 to January 2023 to enforce a zero- COVID response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In-person Updated October 18, 2023 U.S.-PRC engagement at the leader level re-started in November 2022, when President Biden and PRC leader Xi met on the sidelines of a gathering of the G-20 nations in Bali, Indonesia. Biden said at the time that he felt a responsibility to show that China and the United States can manage our differences, prevent competition from becoming anything ever near conflict, and to find ways to work together on urgent global issues. The U.S. and PRC governments are preparing for a potential second in-person meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping's leaders' summit in San Francisco in mid-November 2023, although Xi has yet to confirm his attendance. Senior PRC Personnel Issues A challenge for high-level U.S.-China diplomacy is the currently depleted ranks of PRC government interlocutors. The PRC removed its second-most-senior diplomat, Qin Gang, from his Foreign Minister post in July 2023, without explanation. Qin remains State Councilor for foreign affairs, but has made no public appearances since June 2023. Top diplomat Wang Yi, a Politburo member who heads the office of the CPC's Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, is now also serving as Foreign Minister. PRC Defense Minister Li Shangfu has made no public appearances since August 2023. He serves concurrently as the PRC's State Councilor for defense affairs. . The PRC has yet to name a successor to its former Vice Foreign Minister with responsibility for North America, Xie Feng, who left the position in May 2023 to serve as China's Ambassador to the United States. Public reports of a PRC surveillance balloon flying over the continental United States led Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken to call off a planned February 2023 trip to China. He ultimately visited the PRC in June 2023. Two other 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). Outcomes from 2023's U.S. high-level visits include new working groups and other dialogue mechanisms under the Secretaries of State, Commerce, and the Treasury, and climate envoy Kerry. Critics, including some Members of Congress, have questioned the Biden Administration's focus on re-starting high-level dialogue. Some have suggested that the effort may constrain the Administration from addressing U.S. concerns about such matters as PRC surveillance operations directed at the United States and cyber hacking of U.S. agency networks. Other Members have expressed support