Since 2007, the Committee has resumed taking delegations of Congressional senior staff members to China for a week of site visits and meetings. Arranged by either the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) or the Chinese People's Institute for Foreign Affairs under the Mutual Education and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 (MECEA), these trips are largely listening tours for the participants to get a clearer understanding of China's accomplishments and challenges. They complement the Committee's other efforts — e.g., Congressional Member delegations and Capitol Hill briefings for new Members of Congress [1] — to educate Congress on issues relating to China.

Selected with the help of the bipartisan US-China Working Group, participants have the chance to meet with counterparts working for China's legislature as well as with officials at the central, provincial and municipal levels. Discussions and visits focus on key issues in the U.S.-China relationship, such as energy, climate change, security, and trade. Each group is escorted by several knowledgeable escorts: a senior staff member from the National Committee, several NPC staff members, and (typically) an American China scholar. The National Committee works closely with our counterparts at the Chinese Embassy and host organization to develop the itinerary.

In 2011, the National Committee ran two such delegation visits. In August, a delegation of House senior staff members from D.C. offices focused on China's investment in its own transportation infrastructure development. Visiting Beijing, Tianjin, and Wuhan, the group had opportunities to hear from Chinese and U.S. officials about the expansion of China's high-speed rail, river and ocean ports, highway, subway and light rail, and air transportation network — while experiencing much of it firsthand. In December, a delegation of senior Senate and House staff members from State and District offices traveled to Beijing, Tianjin, and Xiamen, with side excursions to Fujian's Nanjing and Anxi counties, and focused on a broader set of key matters in the bilateral relationship: security, energy, education, domestic stability, economics and trade, and more.

These visits followed on the heels of three 2010 Congressional staff delegations, focusing on various aspects of China’s development and of the U.S.-China relationship. The April House district staff delegation, concentrating on China’s emerging alternative energy sector, visited the grasslands outside Xilinhot, a county-level city in Inner Mongolia, to visit a massive wind farm, one of the icons of China’s clean energy initiatives, and meet with provincial and municipal officials to discuss China's development. Another stop was Wuxi, Jiangsu, to see SunTech Power, a major Chinese solar panel manufacturer, to learn about China’s investment in solar. June and December 2010 delegations focused on economic and trade issues, while prior visits have focused on such topics as minority issues, energy security, efforts to combat terrorism and narcotics trafficking, and economic development.

These programs continue the National Committee's long history of organizing and executing U.S. Congressional staff trips to China — in 1976, we took the first group of Congressional staffers to China [2] — deepening the Committee's close working relationships with the US-China Working Group, the National People’s Congress, and the Chinese Embassy.

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