⁍ Senate Democrats unveil a $350 million package of legislation to boost U.S. competitiveness and recast diplomacy with Beijing.

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⁍ The plan was backed by 11 Democrats, including Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.

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⁍ Relations between China and the United States have nosedived in recent months.

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– Senate Democrats on Thursday unveiled a $350 million plan to counter China’s global influence, Reuters reports. The America LEADS Act of 2020 was backed by 11 Democrats, including Chuck Schumer, but its prospects were unclear because President Trump’s fellow Republicans control the Senate and determine which legislation it considers. However, Sen. Jim Risch, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he hoped the Democrats’ ideas could be combined with Republican proposals for a bipartisan plan. ‘This is an American issue. This is not a partisan issue,’ Risch told a committee hearing at which State Department officials testified about China’s global influence, with one calling Beijing a ‘lawless bully.’ Sen. Bob Menendez, the committee’s ranking Democrat and a leader of the Democratic effort, said he looked forward to working with Republicans ‘to forge a strong, unified, and bipartisan approach’ on the matter. Relations with China have become an issue in campaigning for the Nov. 3 elections. Trump and his fellow Republicans have sought to portray Democrats as weak on China, which Democrats dispute. The ‘America LEADS Act of 2020’ would, among other things, provide new resources to the US education system, and renew US diplomacy with China by strengthening the US commitment to international allies and international organizations like the World Health Organization. It also would strengthen trade enforcement measures and restore an emphasis on human rights, related to issues such as protests in Hong Kong and the treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang.