The members of Congress who plan official visits to China generally represent the foreign policy and security-related committees of the House and Senate. In the Senate, this includes the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Armed Services; in the House of Representatives, it includes the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Armed Services Committee. As of the 112th Congress, the lawmakers who were most actively involved in promoting such visits include Senators John Kerry (D-MA), Richard Lugar (R-IN), and James Inhofe (R-OK); Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Howard Berman (D-CA), and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA).
