United States S 4600: South China Sea Strategy Act of 2026

Bill Text

II
119TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION S. 4600
To require a South China Sea diplomatic engagement strategy, and for
other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MAY 20, 2026
Ms. DUCKWORTH (for herself and Mr. CURTIS) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
A BILL
To require a South China Sea diplomatic engagement
strategy, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘South China Sea Strat-4
egy Act of 2026’’. 5
SEC. 2. UNITED STATES POLICY. 6
It is the policy of the United States— 7
(1) to support the importance of the freedom of 8
navigation, overflight, and unfettered commerce in 9
the South China Sea, in a manner consistent with 10
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•S 4600 IS
international law to preserve United States economic 1
interests in the region; 2
(2) to commit to a rules-based approach to re-3
solving maritime disputes; 4
(3) to counter efforts by the People’s Republic 5
of China (PRC) to unilaterally change the status 6
quo and treat the South China Sea as its unilateral 7
dominion, undermining regional stability and contra-8
vening the PRC’s prior commitments to resolve dis-9
putes peacefully and through appropriate legal 10
venues; and 11
(4) to engage with allies and partners in a con-12
certed, coordinated manner to support a strategic, 13
consistent approach to diplomatic engagement on 14
issues and crises that arise that affect United States 15
interests in the South China Sea, including to en-16
sure the safety of United States citizens in the re-17
gion. 18
SEC. 3. SOUTH CHINA SEA DIPLOMATIC ENGAGEMENT 19
STRATEGY. 20
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 21
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State 22
shall, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, sub-23
mit to the appropriate congressional committees a Strat-24
egy for Diplomatic Engagement on the South China Sea 25
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to ensure that the United States Government is operating 1
in a smart, strategic direction in line with United States 2
interests to maximize our efficient engagement on South 3
China Sea matters. 4
(b) ELEMENTS.—The Strategy listed in subsection 5
(a) shall— 6
(1) describe the overarching goals of United 7
States engagement with littoral states, allies, and 8
partners on security, diplomatic, legal, and economic 9
matters in the South China Sea; 10
(2) designate an office tasked with lead respon-11
sibility for coordinating execution of each goal de-12
scribed in paragraph (1); 13
(3) analyze the successes of the Department of 14
State’s existing mechanisms, programs, and forums 15
for advancing United States goals in the South 16
China Sea through bilateral, multilateral, sub-17
national, civil society, and private sector avenues 18
with littoral states, allies, and partners, and identi-19
fies gaps in engagement; 20
(4) detail plans to deepen bilateral engagement 21
with each littoral state around pressures, threats 22
and opportunities in the South China Sea identified 23
as priorities in previous bilateral engagements; 24
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(5) detail plans to convene and increase the fre-1
quency of collective engagements with littoral states, 2
including additional allies and partners as appro-3
priate, around themes of shared importance, includ-4
ing— 5
(A) bolstering defense capabilities; 6
(B) reinforcing maritime law enforcement 7
capacity and governance; 8
(C) responding to grey-zone tactics, includ-9
ing coordinated illegal, unreported, and unregu-10
lated fishing; 11
(D) managing maritime territorial disputes 12
to reducing the likelihood of security crises and 13
conflicts; 14
(E) preparing crisis management and re-15
sponse mechanisms to avoid potential actions 16
that could unnecessarily provoke or exacerbate 17
a volatile or tense situation; 18
(F) building resilience to foreign malign in-19
fluence and interference; 20
(G) supporting economic development and 21
resilience to economic coercion; and 22
(H) addressing additional factors assessed 23
by the Secretary to be causing a direct risk to 24
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the United States national interests in the 1
South China Sea; and 2
(6) detail plans for coordination with the inter-3
agency and foreign governments to address crisis 4
management for sc