A bipartisan group of House lawmakers announced on Tuesday that they will visit China for the first time since 2019.
The U.S. congressional delegation to China is organized by Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), according to NBC News, which first reported the trip.
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Smith is the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), the committee’s chairman, will not be a part of the delegation.
“I think it’s fairly significant. It’s part of wanting to try to open up a dialogue between the U.S. and China. And I personally think it’s important that you do that,” Smith told the outlet.
“Merely talking with China is not endorsing everything that they do. It’s like China is a big, powerful country. We are a big, powerful country. I think we need to talk about that,” he continued. “So there’s no significance in the timing. I think it should happen more often, on a frequent basis.”
Smith said he is unsure whether the lawmakers will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He also did not say exactly what events lawmakers will attend, but he told the outlet that Democrats and Republicans will be on the trip. He also did not disclose when they will go.
In 2023, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) led a bipartisan delegation of senators to China, but House lawmakers have not visited the nation in six years. The senators met with Xi at the time.
The trip comes as relations between China and the United States have grown increasingly fraught due largely to President Donald Trump‘s trade war with the country. Trump imposed steep tariffs on the country, at one point threatening to impose tariffs as high as 200%. Leaders in Beijing and Washington, D.C., agreed last month to extend their tariff negotiations for another 90 days, leaving U.S. tariffs of 30% on Chinese imports and 10% tariffs from China on U.S. goods.
The meeting also comes as Xi said last week at a massive military parade in China that the world is facing a choice between peace and war. In an apparent show of force, he was joined at the parade by Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth, formerly the defense secretary, also spoke to his Chinese counterpart, Adm. Dong Jun, this week. The Pentagon said Hegseth “made clear that the United States does not seek conflict with China nor is it pursuing regime change or strangulation of the PRC.”