China-focused GOP lawmakers issue demands for Biden ahead of Xi meeting

Republican lawmakers charting U.S. policy toward China have sent President Biden a list of demands to raise with Chinese President Xi Jinping, ahead of an expected meeting between the two leaders during a summit next week in San Francisco. 

The demands include Beijing removing exit bans on U.S. citizens in China, increasing oversight on shipments of fentanyl precursors, and ceasing provocative Chinese maneuvers around U.S. ships and planes, as well as those of allies in the region. 

The lawmakers also demanded the president push China to drop punitive measures against Chinese pro-democracy and human rights activists. 

The letter was led by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chair of the House Select Committee on U.S. Competition with the Chinese Communist Party, and joined by 12 Republican members of the committee. 

Biden is expected to meet with Xi next week at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in San Francisco, though the White House has yet to officially announce a bilateral meeting. 

The two leaders have not met face-to-face, or had a phone call, since a bilateral engagement in November 2022 on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

The administration has sought to balance the U.S. competing with China — in the spheres of military, economy and diplomacy — while looking to cooperate around shared challenges. This has included efforts to manage conflict and avoid miscommunication that could trigger a wider war. 

Biden and Xi are reportedly expected to announce the resumption of a military-to-military channel of communication between the U.S. and China, which is a goal the White House has worked to reinstate since it was severed in August 2022 following the travel of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to Taiwan.

But the Republican lawmakers, in their letter, accused the president of holding back employing U.S. tools to counter aggressive or troubling Chinese behavior in an effort to smooth a pathway for a bilateral engagement in San Francisco.

“While we share your desire to deter a devastating conflict with the PRC [People’s Republic of China], we are concerned that the recent prioritization of bilateral engagement has come at an unacceptable cost to ‘competitive’ or defensive actions that have been delayed, scuttled, or otherwise dropped in an effort to get the PRC to the table— all for poorly defined benefit,” the lawmakers wrote.

The letter gave Biden credit for employing “strengthened semiconductor export controls and new restrictions on outbound investment” but said there has been a decline in action toward the Chinese Communist Party related to spotlighting its human rights record and deterring Beijing from its harassment of the U.S. and allies in the South China Sea.

The lawmakers also say the administration has failed to pressure China to take more stringent action to stem the flow of chemicals that go into making the potent narcotic fentanyl — a major contributor to overdose drug deaths in the U.S.

“While your administration’s public position on competition and cooperation with the PRC has remained the same, it is clear that competitive actions have been sacrificed to advance aimless, zombie-like engagement,” the lawmakers wrote.

Among the pro-democracy and human rights activists the lawmakers want to be released are Jimmy Lai and the “Hong Kong 47” pro-democracy activists. They also call for the removal of an exit ban for Ayshem Mamut, the mother of Nury Turkel, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Other demands include the release of Gulshan Abbas, Ekpar Asat, and Kamile Wayit, family members of Uyghur Americans Rushan Abbas, Rayhan Asat and Kewser Wayit.

Other signatories to the letter include Reps. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.), Andy Barr (R-Ky.), Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), Darin LaHood (R-Ill.), Neal Dunn (R-Fla.), Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), Michelle Steel (R-Calif.), Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), and Carlos Giménez (R-Fla.).