China may preoccupy US lawmakers and staff, but few travel there as dim views persist

Observers mull implications as some of Beijing’s harshest critics and less-travelled policy hands on Capitol Hill avoid trips to mainland

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Travel to China by US congressional staff has tapered off amid declining American sentiment towards the mainland. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:15am, 27 Aug 2024Updated: 2:56am, 27 Aug 2024

While China’s strongest critics in the US Congress have yet to achieve their goal of a complete Sino-American decoupling, the legislative branch itself, right down to its staff, has all but done so.

In August, US congressional members and their staff typically trot the globe to gather information and spread their political message.

And though the world’s second-biggest economy looms large in Capitol Hill debates, it has been conspicuously absent of late not only from members’ travel schedules but also their staff’s.

Since January 2023, just about a dozen congressional staff have ventured to the mainland, a fraction of past levels. Of those, six accompanied US senator Chuck Schumer’s six-member delegation to China and South Korea last October – the only such delegation to visit the country this congressional session.

“Congressional staffers are perhaps the most important cog in the machine because they’re the ones that, more often than not, help to draft the scope of legislation, and help to flesh out the issues for their members who may not be experts on the issue and may rely on them,” said Ilan Berman of the American Foreign Policy Council, a conservative Washington-based think tank.

Unlike trips made by lawmakers, staff travel is lower-profile and allows participants to engage on a more granular level.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York led a congressional delegation to China in October. Photo: AFP