Requires the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, to submit a strategy for diplomatic engagement on the South China Sea to Congress within 180 days.

• Requires the strategy to set out goals, name a State Department office to lead each goal, review existing engagement programs, and plan engagement with littoral states including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Taiwan.
• Requires the strategy to cover defense, maritime law enforcement, illegal fishing, territorial disputes, crisis management, foreign influence, and economic coercion, and to be submitted unclassified with an optional classified annex.
• Requires the Secretary of State, within 360 days, to identify programs, policies, and budget resources needed to carry out the strategy for fiscal years 2027 through 2029, followed by a briefing to Congress 30 days after that submission.
• States that nothing in the act changes the One China Policy, which the bill says is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three U.S.-PRC joint communiques, and the Six Assurances.

• Foreign Relations Committee (Senate)

International Affairs