Monday, May 20, 2024

US Senate leader raises trade and fentanyl at start of 1st congressional visit to China since 2019

SHANGHAI — A senior American lawmaker, main the primary congressional commute to China in 4 years, mentioned Saturday that the U.S. does now not need to reduce financial ties with the arena’s second-largest financial system however seeks a degree enjoying box in order that American corporations can compete freely.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and 5 different senators arrived in Shanghai previous within the day on a three-country excursion that may even take them to South Korea and Japan. The commute comes amid a pointy deterioration in members of the family between the U.S. and China and as officers check out to lay the groundwork for a imaginable assembly between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in November.

“We are prepared to compete but we do not seek to conflict,” Schumer informed Shanghai’s Communist Party leader in a while after the delegation’s arrival.

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The birthday celebration head, Chen Jining, have shyed away from particular problems in his public remarks, pronouncing {that a} wholesome and strong China-U.S. dating would get advantages all the international. He famous the presence of 5,640 American corporations in Shanghai, and mentioned he’s glad to give you the chance to speak about how to advertise trade at the native stage.

The U.S. has positioned tariff and different trade restrictions on China over nationwide safety, human rights and different issues and blocked get right of entry to to complicated semiconductors and different key applied sciences. China has accused the U.S. of in search of to comprise its financial building because it emerges as an international energy and possible danger to the U.S.-led global order.

Schumer mentioned the U.S. needs the Chinese other folks to have greater financial alternative however that many Americans really feel China does now not deal with U.S. corporations moderately.

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“We believe we need reciprocity allowing American companies to compete as freely in China as Chinese companies are able to compete here,” he mentioned.

A sequence of high-ranking Biden management officers have met their Chinese opposite numbers in Beijing in fresh months, however Schumer and his colleagues are the primary American lawmakers to make the commute since China lifted its COVID-19 restrictions in December of ultimate 12 months.

The delegation of 3 Democrats and 3 Republicans landed on a U.S. executive jet on an overcast and windy afternoon. The Republicans had been led by way of Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo, the senior member of his birthday celebration at the Senate Finance Committee. Schumer is a New York Democrat.

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China, in a remark previous this week, mentioned it was hoping the visit would “contribute to a more objective understanding of China in the U.S. Congress.”

Schumer additionally raised the problem of Chinese corporations that experience stopped making fentanyl however which the U.S. executive says proceed to provide the elements for manufacturing of the opioid in Mexico.

“They are fueling the fentanyl crisis that is poisoning communities across the United States,” he mentioned. “Every one of us knows families who have lost young men and women to fentanyl.”

China has mentioned that it maintains strict keep an eye on of the chemical compounds to be sure they don’t seem to be exported for unlawful functions and that the U.S. must prevent transferring the blame for its failure to curb drug abuse.

In a reminder of the tensions between the 2 nations, China’s trade ministry mentioned on Saturday that new U.S. restrictions put on 42 Chinese corporations had been “a typical act of economic coercion and unilateral bullying.”

The U.S. Commerce Department added the Chinese companies and seven others to its entity list on Friday. It said the companies supplied “U.S.-origin” semiconductors that Russia uses for missile guidance systems and drones in the war against Ukraine. American companies cannot export to organizations on the entity list without obtaining a special license.

A Chinese international relations expert said that Schumer’s visit is a sign of improvement in China-U.S. relations. The senators hope to meet Xi in Beijing during their visit.

“If the talks proceed well, there is the possibility that President Xi will meet Schumer,” said Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China. “If their meeting is realized, the chances for a Xi-Biden meeting will become greater.”

The White House has been involved with Schumer and helps the delegation’s visit to the area, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned after the commute was once introduced.

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