beyondbrics

By Richard McGregor in Washington and Jamil Anderlini in Beijing

Beijing will host one of the largest and most senior delegations ever from the US Senate this week in a trip which coincides with one of the most severe internal political crackdowns in recent memory in China.

The bipartisan group of ten senators will be led by Nevada Democrat, Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, and includes other senior members of the chamber.

The group includes senators Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin, Democrats from New York and Illinois, and Richard Shelby and Mike Enzi, Republicans from Alabama and Wyoming respectively.

The long-planned trip, which was almost delayed by budget negotiations in Washington, has a strong focus on business and clean energy and will take the delegation to Chengdu, in western Sichuan province, and Beijing and Xian.

“During meetings with Chinese officials, the group will discuss issues including clean energy, trade issues, currency, foreign policy and human rights,” said a press statement released when the delegation arrived in Hong Kong on Monday.

Although members of Congress have often visited China, this is one of the highest-profile visits in recent memory.

“I cannot recall any group of senators this large going,” said Jim Mann, of an author-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

But while the initial focus of the group might have been on US investment and environmental technology, the sharp political crackdown in China will inevitably cast a shadow over the tenor of the meetings.

China has detained numerous high-profile lawyers, activists and artists over the last month, many without charge, apparently in response to concerns about an Arab-style uprising.

An international campaign is already underway to free the most famous detainee, Ai Weiwei, an artist and political activist who is known globally as one of the co-designers of Beijing’s Olympics stadium.

Ai’s arrest, on allegations of unspecified “economic crimes”, has already drawn global protests and calls from world leaders for his release.

Otherwise, the Senate delegation may be able to get a broader view of China’s breakneck economic development and the implications of widespread state support for many nascent industries.

Congress has for years focused on the relatively narrow benchmark of China’s currency, the renminbi, which it says has been kept artificially low to boost Chinese exports.

However, business groups say the exclusive attention on the currency issue has distracted from problems such as the protection of US investments in China.

Tim Geithner, the Treasury Secretary, has backed this view, calling on Beijing to reduce implicit state subsidies to companies – from low-cost finance, land and energy – and clamp down on the theft of intellectual property from foreign companies.

The new Republican-controlled House of Representatives has also signaled it wants to move beyond the current issue as a framework for the relationship.

Kevin Brady, who took over as the chairman of the House trade subcommittee after last November’s elections, recently told the FT that his committee “will no longer view the relationship with China purely through the currency [issue].”

Chinese subsidies to alternative energy industries, such as solar and wind power equipment, have become a bone of contention between Washington and Beijing.

In December Washington began a case over such state support against Beijing at the World Trade Organisation, though that was sparked by complaints by US unions rather than companies, many of which are more interested in operating in China than exporting goods made in the US.

Related reading:
Superpower leaders side by side but worlds apart, FT
List of US concerns with China grows, FT
Renminbi issue is put on the back burner, FT
In depth: China shapes the world, FT