WASHINGTON, May 28: A group of US lawmakers banded together on Friday to focus congressional attention on how China’s rise affects the United States in areas ranging from energy demand to trade to military spending. Randy Forbes, a Virginia Republican, said he and eight members of the House of Representatives started the bipartisan Congressional China Caucus to ensure that Americans become aware of China’s emergence as an economic, political and military power.

“The public still hasn’t gotten the full picture of what’s going on with China because we’re so overwhelmed with Iraq and Iran and North Korea,” Mr Forbes said in a telephone interview.

“I really don’t see this country having developed the plans to deal with China like I know China has developed the plans to deal with us,” he said.

The caucus would meet frequently and enlist ‘the best minds in America’ to educate lawmakers and the public on China issues, including a 162 billion dollars US trade deficit with the Asian giant, Mr Forbes said.

“Our goal is not to be particularly anti- or pro-China, but to make sure that we’re getting factual information out there in order for Congress and the American people to make decisions,” he said.

In January Mr Forbes led a congressional delegation to China for a tour of military and industrial facilities. Members also met Chinese officials to discuss human rights, counterfeiting of US goods and the potential flashpoint of Taiwan.

Fellow caucus member Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat, called Taiwan Strait separating China and Taiwan ‘the most dangerous place on Earth’.

Ike Skeleton advocated keeping a strong US naval presence in the Pacific to ‘dampen adventurism’ and deal with the risk that China might attack Taiwan if the self-governing island sought independence. —Reuters