Under the leadership of Chairman Mike Gallagher, the Republicans of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party wrote a letter to President Biden, urging the administration to encourage Beijing to demonstrate its commitment to strengthening the U.S.-China relationship at the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
President Biden is preparing for his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the summit in San Francisco next week. This will be their first meeting since Nov. 2022. All 13 Republicans on the committee signed a letter outlining ten fundamental demands that they anticipate President Biden will make of Xi Jinping to demonstrate his commitment to strengthening the relationship with the United States, lawmakers said, according to a press release from the Select Committee on the CCP
The committee highlighted that there have been no sanctions against People's Republic of China (PRC) for issues such as genocide over recent years. At the beginning of Biden's Administration, sanctions were imposed more frequently. "Your administration has presided over an overwhelming decline in these actions in the last 18 months, particularly those related to human rights," wrote lawmakers, according to their letter. "With notable exceptions such as strengthened semiconductor export controls and new restrictions on outbound investment – which we have strongly supported – self-censorship of defensive actions appears to have skyrocketed."
In their letter, lawmakers also urged Administration to insist that Xi Jinping releases U.S. citizens who have been wrongfully detained by PRC, frees U.S. citizens subjected to exit bans, releases and drops charges against Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and stops shipments to U.S. of chemicals used in making fentanyl among others things, according to a press release from Select Committee on CCP.
"These asks are the beginning, not end of necessary behavior change PRC needs undertake demonstrate it truly wants better relationship with United States world," said lawmakers according to a press release from Select Committee on CCP.
