Leaders of the US House of Representatives' bipartisan US-China Working Group said it's important to educate members of Congress about China affairs, especially the growing Chinese foreign direct investment in the United States.

Representative Charles Boustany Jr, a Republican from Louisiana, said educating members of Congress about the nature of this economic relationship is vitally important.

"With a lot of turnover in the last election cycles, we have a lot of members who do not know much about China," Boustany said on Thursday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "There is a lot of work to do. That is one of the prime goals of the working group."

Congressman Rick Larsen, who has co-chaired the group since its founding in 2005, said new members of Congress are usually busy in their initial years with issues reflecting the interests of their districts, as well as their own re-election.

They have to pass a point in the first few years where they have a little more freedom and time to look at other issues, according to Larsen, who is now serving his seventh term in the House.

"That is the biggest challenge to getting the attention of new members on any of the issues," said Larsen, a Democrat from the state of Washington, whose largest trading partner is China.

Boustany, also one of the early members of the group, believes the massive turnover in the House in the last two election cycles has complicated the issues, including those regarding Chinese investment in the US.

Both Congressmen agreed that US governors and mayors are very interested in attracting Chinese FDI as a way to create local jobs.

The US-China Working Group, whose mission is to educate members of Congress about China-related issues, was set up after China National Offshore Oil Company faced tough opposition in Congress over its bid to acquire California-based Unocal in 2005.

Boustany believes there has been a change of attitude in the Congress, as demonstrated by CNOOC's successful purchase of a third of a Chesapeake Energy oil and natural gas project in late 2010, since which CNOOC has made more investments in US oil and gas projects.

Many Chinese hold the view that the US has criteria and scrutiny for Chinese FDI that are different for other foreign investments. Such concerns were said to be on the agenda at last weekend's summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama in Sunnylands, California.

Last September, Obama ordered Chinese-owned Ralls Corp to divest its holdings in a wind farm in Oregon, citing its proximity to a naval base. Then in October, a report by two members of the House Intelligence Committee pointed to two Chinese telecom companies, Huawei Technologies and ZTE, as possible national security threats.

Even the intended purchase of Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, the US' largest pork producer, by Chinese company Shuanghui two weeks ago raised some eyebrows, as witnessed by Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley's call for a national security review of the deal by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, a review that Shuanghui, in fact, is seeking on its own.

Larsen said there have been very few cases of Chinese investment going through CFIUS. He said CFIUS is not preventing Chinese FDI.

Statistics from New York-based Rhodium Group show that Chinese FDI in the US reached $6.5 billion in 2012, up 17 percent from the previous record of $5.5 billion in 2010.

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 06/14/2013 page10)