Republican lawmakers have urged US President Joe Biden to discuss the issue of wrongfully detained Americans and the country’s fentanyl crisis, during his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in San Francisco next week.
Overview
In a letter made public on Thursday, 13 Republicans on the House of Representatives’ bipartisan select committee on China, led by chairman Mike Gallagher, applauded the Biden Administration for strengthening semiconductor export controls and restricting outbound investment toward China.
However, they proposed a list of 10 demands that Biden should present to Xi in order to improve relations; much like how Beijing did the same to US officials in 2021.
As part of these demands, lawmakers suggested that Biden ask China to release all Americans that Washington believes have been wrongfully detained, take measures to control the flow of chemicals used to manufacture the opioid fentanyl, cease unsafe intercepts of US ships and aircraft in international waters, and stop the harassment of Filipino vessels near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.
The lawmakers added that while they shared Biden’s desire to deter a conflict with the Asian superpower, the push to engage with China had come at an “unacceptable cost” to competitive or defensive actions that have been “delayed, scuttled, or otherwise dropped.”
“So far, these very real tradeoffs have led to negligible benefit,” they stated.
Furthermore, the letter said that Beijing had taken no steps to control military provocations in the South China Sea, or toward the democratically governed island of Taiwan, which China claims to be part of its own territory.
Additionally, the lawmakers stated that for nearly two years, Washington had not imposed sanctions on Chinese officials, over the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy and for allegations of rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang province, and had not expanded trade restrictions under the Treasury Department's Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List.
“It is clear that competitive actions have been sacrificed to advance aimless, zombie-like engagement,” the letter underscored.
Biden and Xi are set to hold their landmark meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit this month. The meeting comes after relations soured following a suspected Chinese spy balloon being found in US airspace in February.
Softening Views
Biden’s meeting with Xi comes at the heels of a recent report by Morning Consult, which found that US adults’ views of China have slightly softened in recent months, especially among Democrat voters. However, the report noted that as the 2024 election nears, “diplomacy is likely to give way to domestic political posturing.”
Although an overwhelming majority of Democrat and Republican voters are “worried” about the superpowers’ bilateral tensions, both sides want to work towards reducing them.