A House of Representatives delegation led by Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) arrived this weekend in Beijing, China, and held a rare in-person meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun on Monday.
Dong’s appearance was the most high-profile diplomatic exchange the Communist Party has trusted him with since reports indicated he was under investigation for corruption. He most recently returned to public appearances last week, delivering a speech in which he declared that the Communist Party was “always ready to defeat any external interference by force,” threatening supporters of the sovereign government of Taiwan.
The visit is notable as no House delegation visited China during the administration of pro-Beijing former President Joe Biden; the last such visit occurred in 2019. Rep. Smith was a vocal supporter of another controversial visit to Asia, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) ending her congressional career with a visit to Taiwan in 2022.
The Chinese Communist Party loudly threatened the United States in response to Pelosi’s visit, comparing her presence in the country with the death of Minnesota resident George Floyd and cutting off military-to-military communications with Washington.
“I don’t think we should let China dictate something like this. Nancy Pelosi’s the Speaker of the House. She’s one of the most powerful people in the country. If she wants to go visit Taiwan, she ought to be able to do that,” Rep. Smith said at the time.
Rep. Smith is a ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee; he is in China accompanied by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), and Michael Baumgartner (R-WA). Prior to the meeting with Dong, the lawmakers met with Premier Li Qiang, a more traditional senior leader to host meetings with visiting foreign politicians. The Chinese state propaganda outlet Global Times celebrated their visit, along with a phone call on Friday between President Donald Trump and genocidal Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, as “significant progress” in improving relations between Washington and Beijing.
Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (2nd R) speaks with US Representative Adam Smith (L), Democratic ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, and a bipartisan group of US lawmakers during a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on September 22, 2025. (MAHESH KUMAR A./POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
According to the Times, Dong used his time with the Congressional delegation to command them to avoid “disruptive factors and take constructive and pragmatic measures to contribute positively to improving military relations.”
“The Chinese military is willing to build a military relationship with the US based on equality, respect, peaceful coexistence, and stable and positive development,” Dong reportedly told the lawmakers, “while firmly safeguarding national sovereignty, security, and development interests.”
In a commentary on the visit, the Global Times, which often serves as an English-language mouthpiece for the Chinese government, celebrated the lawmakers while scolding the U.S. Congress for playing a “negative and obstructive role” by passing legislation condemning China’s myriad human rights abuses. Among the human rights crimes perpetrated by the Communist Party that the U.S. Congress has addressed are the ongoing genocide of Turkic people, particularly the Uyghurs, of occupied East Turkistan; the persecution and ethnic cleansing of Tibetan people in occupied Tibet; widespread state-sponsored slavery; relentless threats of war against Taiwan; and the violent suppression of anti-communist voices in Hong Kong in 2019.
“This visit has opened a new window for China-US relations,” the Times declared on Monday. “But to keep that window open and widen it further, both sides must continue working hard together in the same direction.”
The Chinese Defense Ministry was rocked by consecutive scandals at the top, resulting in the elimination from public life of two successive defense ministers. Wei Fenghe retired from the Defense Ministry in early 2023 with little fanfare; the second, successor Li Shangfu, disappeared in August of that year. In June 2024, Beijing confirmed that both had been expelled from the Communist Party on accusations of corruption and were no longer officials in good standing. Beijing left the defense minister post open for months before quietly placing Dong Jun at the helm.
In November, the Financial Times reported that the Chinese government had opened a third corruption investigation into Dong. The defense minister was largely absent from public events for months before resurfacing last week, delivering a speech before the Xiangshan Forum, a defense event in Beijing.
“The return of Taiwan to China is an integral part of the post-war international order,” Dong declared at that event. “We will never allow any ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist schemes to succeed, and we are always ready to defeat any external interference by force.”
In reality, Taiwan is a sovereign state with a government apparatus that has been entirely independent of the “people’s republic” for decades and is not a province of China.
The apparently cordial exchange between Dong and the American Congressmen followed what President Trump called a “very productive” conversation with Xi Jinping on Friday. Trump announced that, as a result of that call, he would personally travel to China in early 2026. Xi reportedly committed to visiting the United States at some point after that.
“I just completed a very productive call with President Xi of China. We made progress on many very important issues including Trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the War between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok Deal,” Trump wrote.
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