Beijing says it would welcome a visit by US senators next month
- Senate majority leader Charles Schumer is reportedly planning a bipartisan delegation, which would be the first congressional trip to mainland China in four years
- A visit would help ‘promote exchanges between the two countries, and inject more positive energy into the China-US relationship’, Chinese embassy spokesman says
Beijing said it would welcome a proposed visit to China next month by US senators, seeing it as an opportunity to “inject positive energy” into bilateral relations.
“China welcomes people from all walks of life in the United States, including members of the Congress, to visit China so as to have a better understanding of China, promote exchanges between the two countries, and inject more positive energy into the China-US relationship,” Liu Pengyu, spokesman for China’s Washington embassy, said on Thursday.
The Senate majority leader, Charles E. Schumer, a Democrat of New York, and Senator Mike Crapo, Republican of Idaho, are planning to head a bipartisan trip to China in October, according to multiple reports. It would mark the first such visit by members of the US Congress to mainland China in more than four years.
The delegation also expects to visit Japan and South Korea, according to Crapo’s office. Schumer’s office did not immediately respond to inquiries about the trip.
While invitations have reportedly been extended to several senators from both parties, the delegation’s membership remains unclear.
A trip to China by US lawmakers would follow a flurry of visits by senior US government officials in recent months, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and John F. Kerry, the special envoy on climate change.