WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of House lawmakers will make an official trip to China later this month, lawmakers told NBC News on Tuesday, the first such official visit by members of the House since 2019.
The trip comes at a moment of fraught political and economic tensions between Washington and Beijing, and weeks after the leaders of China, Russia and North Korea met in Tiananmen Square and observed a massive military parade.
The U.S. congressional delegation or CODEL to China, which has not previously been reported, is being organized by Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and current top Democrat on the panel. Smith confirmed the trip to NBC News on Tuesday afternoon.
A second lawmaker confirmed they were attending the CODEL as well. Smith said that both Democratic and Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee would participate, but that Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., would not be 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 said in an interview just off the House floor.
“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 at the timing. I think it should happen more often, on a frequent basis.”
Asked if the lawmakers would meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Smith replied: “We’re asking. We don’t know yet.”
Some high-level U.S.-China talks are already happening. On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke to his Chinese counterpart, Admiral Dong Jun, by video teleconference in their first publicly known conversation, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the call. The Pentagon on Wednesday confirmed that the phone call happened, saying they "exchanged views in a candid and constructive manner" and agreed to more talks.
"Secretary Hegseth made clear that the United States does not seek conflict with China nor is it pursuing regime change or strangulation of the PRC," chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said. "At the same time, however, he forthrightly relayed that the U.S. has vital interests in the Asia-Pacific, the priority theater, and will resolutely protect those interests."
Details of the lawmakers' visit are being tightly held, and even senior members of the committee were unaware it was happening. A Rogers spokesperson did not respond to questions about the trip.
Smith declined to provide the names of lawmakers who will be attending or the exact dates of the travel. However, the House will be on a recess the week of Sept. 22 for the Rosh Hashanah holiday.
The CODEL will also include a stop in Cambodia, Smith said, but Taiwan will not be on the itinerary.
The visit comes as the Trump administration and Beijing continue negotiating a trade deal. Trump has imposed significant tariffs on China and other trading partners, but he extended the deadline to Nov. 10 for those tariffs to kick in, to give the two sides more time to strike a deal.
"My important message is, you know, we have to have dialogue and communication," Smith said. "I am deeply worried that, yes, China is a major rising power that we seem to be talking less and less to. We need to figure out a way to resolve our differences and can't do it by not talking to each other."
In 2023, then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., led a bipartisan delegation of senators to China, where they met with Xi and discussed issues such as trade, economic competition and fentanyl, according to Schumer.
But House lawmakers had not visited China since March 2019, when Reps. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., and Darin LaHood, R-Ill. — then the co-chairs of the U.S.-China Working Group — led a bipartisan group to Beijing. Unlike an official government-funded CODEL, that 2019 trip was sponsored by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.
The Covid-19 pandemic struck a year later, and official House travel to the region has since focused on Taiwan, Japan and other U.S. allies.
In 2022, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., made an unannounced visit to Taiwan during a CODEL to Asia, angering Beijing and sparking live-fire military exercises around the self-governing island that China claims as its own.
A year later, then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., led a House delegation to Taiwan and met with then-President Tsai Ing-wen, just as Pelosi’s group did.
And in 2024, then-Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, led a House delegation to meet with Taiwan’s new president, Lai Ching-te, promising that more weapons were on the way.
