Senate Delegation Led by Schumer Arrives in China

Senate Delegation Led by Schumer Arrives in China - The delegation is co-led by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idado): A bipartisan delegation led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) arrived in Shanghai on Saturday afternoon, amid concerns about the timing of the trip.

Senate Delegation Led by Schumer Arrives in China

Senate Delegation Led by Schumer Arrives in China

A bipartisan delegation led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) arrived in Shanghai on Saturday afternoon, amid concerns about the timing of the trip.

The delegation’s arrival was first reported by China’s state-run media, which said Shanghai will be the first stop of the senators’ trip. After visiting China, the senators are scheduled to travel to South Korea and Japan.

The delegation is co-led by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idado). The four other senators on the trip are Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.)

Before leaving for China, Mr. Schumer said on the Senate floor on Oct. 4 that the senators will meet government and business leaders from both nations during their trip. However, it is unclear if the senators will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

“Our message to China will be clear but fair: the Chinese government must work with us to ensure a level playing field so that U.S. businesses and American workers have the opportunity to compete fairly in decades to come,” said Mr. Schumer. “We’ll focus on the need for reciprocity in China for U.S. businesses. And we’ll focus on advancing America’s national security interests and leadership in critical technologies.

Mr. Schumer also said he looked forward to having a conversation with Chinese officials on fentanyl production, China’s human rights record, and regional stability.

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U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (5th from R) and other members of the delegation arrive at Shanghai Pudong International Airport in Shanghai on Oct. 7, 2023. (Aly Song/AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (5th from R) and other members of the delegation arrive at Shanghai Pudong International Airport in Shanghai on Oct. 7, 2023. (Aly Song/AFP via Getty Images)
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Last month, the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai found in its annual poll that U.S. firms’s China outlook was the worst in decades. Regulatory challenges facing U.S. firms included a lack of intellectual property protection, data localization, and other cybersecurity requirements.
The senators’ trip comes after Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s visit to China in August. During her trip, she said American companies had complained to her that China has become “uninvestable,” citing changes to counterespionage laws, exorbitant fines without any explanation, and Chinese authorities’ raids on foreign firms.
In September, Ms. Raimondo told NBC in an interview that the United States was trying to “choke” China’s military capacity. “Certainly, on my watch, we are not going to sell the most sophisticated American chip to China that they want for their military capacity,” she said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and John Kerry, President Joe Biden's climate envoy, have all visited China this year.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Oct. 5 that the Biden administration “certainly support[s]” the senators’ trip to China.

‘Xi Is an Adversary’

Before the delegation arrived in China, several Republican senators took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to express concerns about Mr. Schumer’s decisions to engage with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials.
“Nothing [Schumer] says will stop the CCP’s human rights abuses, shipping of deadly fentanyl to our border or theft of American resources,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) wrote on Oct. 6.
Mexico cartels have been buying precursor chemicals from China to make fentanyl and ship finished products to the United States. On Oct. 3, the Treasury Department sanctioned more than 20 entities and individuals in China involved in a network for manufacturing and distributing fentanyl and other drugs.
On the same day, the Justice Department charged eight Chinese corporations and 12 Chinese nationals for allegedly illegally important fentanyl and related chemicals into the United States.
In a separate X post on Oct. 6, Mr. Scott urged Mr. Schumer to ask CCP officials why they had recently placed a floating barrier at the entrance to the lagoon at Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground for Philippine fishermen.

“He could ask them why they’re putting up illegal barriers to impede navigation and harm the fishers,” Mr. Scott wrote. “It’s acts of aggression like this that tell us precisely who Xi is, an adversary.”

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Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) speaks during a press conference in the U.S. Capitol in Washington on July 11, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) speaks during a press conference in the U.S. Capitol in Washington on July 11, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)
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Also ahead of the delegation’s arrival in China, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) released a short clip, explaining that he couldn’t be on the delegation because he had been sanctioned by China.
The CCP imposed sanctions on Mr. Rubio and several other lawmakers in 2020, in retaliation against U.S. sanctions against Chinese and Hong Kong officials for undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms.

Also in his clip, Mr. Rubio warned that the United States cannot accommodate the CCP.

“In the end, [China’s] viewpoint is, no matter how much these politicians talk tough, they’re so addicted to what we can provide them, and in the end, they’re really limited to what they can do. And they will perceive these leadership trips as an indicator of us looking for an exit strategy and an accommodation on that front,” Mr. Rubio says in the video.

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) said Mr. Schumer should not have traveled to China; instead, the Senate Majority leader should have canceled the Senate’s October recess and have the senators debate all 12 appropriations bills, to avert another government shutdown on Nov. 17.
“The last thing Chuck Schumer should be doing is going to China to try to secure a meeting with Xi Jinping with the appropriations process unfinished,” Mr. Hagerty wrote on Oct. 6.