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1 [1] (October 24, 2023)

handle is hein.crs/govenhb0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service a0irnfwrming the Iegislative debate sin ;o 1914 China Primer: U.S.-China Relations 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. 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. Bikiteral Engagerment 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 U.S.-PRC engagement at the leader level re-started in Updated October 24, 2023 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. . In July 2023, PRC President Xi signed an order removing China's then-Foreign Minister, Qin Gang, from his post. In October 2023, Xi signed another order removing Qin from his post as State Councilor for foreign affairs. Each time, the PRC offered no explanation. Qin had been China's second-most-senior diplomat. 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. Xi's October 2023 order also removed Li Shangfu from his posts as Minister of Defense and State Councilor for defense affairs, without explanation. The defense minister post is currently vacant. See CRS In Focus IF 12505, China Primer China's Political System. 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 made his first visit to the PRC in his current position 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 and Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. 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 for dialogue. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who