US lawmakers visiting China seek to improve military cooperation

Chrissy Houlahan, D- Pennsylvania, House Armed Services Committee shakes hands with Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun at the Ministry of Defense in Beijing, yesterday

The United States wants to improve military-to-military ties with China, a U.S. lawmaker leading a bipartisan congressional delegation said yesterday in a meeting with China’s defense minister in Beijing.

The visit is the first from the House of Representatives to China since 2019, and comes as tensions have risen between the two countries over trade, technology and opposing views on global conflicts. A group of U.S. senators visited Beijing in 2023.

The current delegation is led by Rep. Adam Smith, a Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. The group met with Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun and separately, with Vice Premier He Lifeng, after holding talks with Premier Li Qiang on Sunday.

“We want to open up better the lines of communication between our two countries in general, in particular between our defense (structures),” Smith told Dong ahead of their meeting.

He added that he believed both China and the U.S. wanted to uphold global peace and security, which made it important for the sides to maintain open communication lines.

“And we have disagreements, without question, but I think it makes it all the more important that we have open discussions about how to resolve those differences,” he added.

Dong said the lawmakers’ visit “shows a good phase in strengthening China-U.S. communications,” which “is the right thing to do.”

U.S. and China military communications were suspended for over a year starting in August 2022, following a visit by then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan. The visit angered Beijing.

The sides restored military dialogue in November 2023, after a rare meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and then-U.S. President Joe Biden.

President Donald Trump said he would meet with Xi at a regional summit taking place at the end of October in South Korea and will visit China in the “early part of next year,” following a lengthy phone call between the two on Friday.

The congressional delegation also includes Michael Baumgartner, a Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as Ro Khanna and Chrissy Houlahan, both Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee. The lawmakers are in China until Thursday. MDT/AP