Source: Global Times

After the first call, the U.S. Congressman's delegation Smith arrived in China on 21 December for a visit. This is the first visit of the U.S. House delegation to China since 2019, and analysis is generally believed that this means that the U.S. has made great progress in stabilizing bilateral relations. In recent years, the U.S. has conducted high-level calls or talks in the fields of military, diplomacy and trade, and the visit of the Congressman's delegation further shows that under the strategic guidance of the Chief Foreign Minister, the outside world has higher expectations for China to further strengthen strategic communication and inject more certainty into the world.

International public opinion almost invariably used the word "rare" to describe this visit. Although this is due to the general obstruction of Sino-US exchanges caused by many factors in recent years, it more reflects the international community's general perception of the "anti-China base camp" of the US Congress. As far as China policy is concerned, Congress and its subordinate agencies have played an increasingly negative and negative role in recent years: they continue to create friction through Taiwan-related, Hong Kong-related, Xinjiang-related and other issues, and use legislation to solidify competition with China into an institutional framework; At the same time, use the budget and supervision power to restrict and pressure the administrative department to take more restrictive measures against China. Its practice not only strengthens geopolitical conflicts, but also exacerbates ordinary people's misunderstanding of China. This objective reality just shows the necessity and urgency for U.S. congressmen to strengthen communication and exchanges with China.

Smith visited China at this time, and delivered three signals to the outside world.The first is that the delegation under the negotiations of the two sides was able to work out, is one of the elements of the overall atmosphere of China-US communication and exchanges improvement, highlighting the irreplaceable leading role of the Chief Diplomat in China-US relations; the second is to show that the Congress with China direct contact, dialogue and exchanges is not an unimaginable thing, the constantly emerging anti-Chinese proposals can not cover up a part of the congressmen hope to strengthen exchanges with China; the third is that this visit may also be a windmark, to promote more congressmen to China in the future, as Smith said, "the visit of the US House of Representatives should not be a six-seven-year

The U.S. Congress has not played a constructive role in China-U.S. relations. In January 1979, just days after the establishment of China-U.S. relations, the U.S. Senator Sam Nunn led the U.S. Senate inter-party delegation to visit China. At the end of the visit, Nunn and other lawmakers actively promoted China-friendly legislation and supported China's exchanges in the fields of economy, technology, culture and other fields. For decades, the far-reaching "Sino-U.S. Technology Cooperation Agreement" has been partly benefited from the push of this visit.

Over the years, many U.S. lawmakers have been deeply dependent on media narratives and single channels to understand China and are prone to prejudice. By seeing the real face of Chinese society in their own eyes, they are able to gain a more objective, stereotypical and comprehensive perception of China. Though this cognitive revision is difficult to immediately translate into a policy shift, it can deepen the political usefulness of extremist speech, making Congress gradually realize that in the face of a country such as China, which is huge and highly intertwined with its own interests, conflict legislation alone cannot provide an effective solution. In the delegation there are long-term lawmakers responsible for military affairs, and in the sensitive context of the situation in the Taiwan Sea and the South China Sea, even limited exchanges can play a

This visit opened a new window for China-U.S. relations, but in order to keep this window open and wider, the two sides still need to move towards each other and work together. In the face of the visit of the delegation, China showed an open, confident and constructive gesture. This is both the strength of the great diplomacy, but also China's insistence to resolve contradictions through dialogue. Smith's side also expressed the desire to promote China-U.S. dialogue in economic, military and other fields. It should be noted in particular that some U.S. congressmen and interest groups for political and private interests have continuously manipulated anti-China issues, especially in the Taiwan issue, and the destructiveness of individual bad events to China-U.S. relations has been especially highlighted. For example, Congress

China and the United States are the two most important economies in the world, and also have a major influence, strengthening exchanges and cooperation is not only beneficial to the two countries, but is also closely related to the prosperity and peace of the world. As President Xi Jinping said, China and the United States can fully each other, prosper together, benefit the two countries, benefit the world. Hopefully Smith's visit to China will be a good start, pushing more American people from all walks of life to come to China, see and see, break the wrong perception and stereotype of China, and play a constructive role for the friendship and common development of the two countries.