WASHINGTON: Several Republican lawmakers have urged Secretary of State Antony Blinken to hold China accountable for its egregious human rights abuses, unfair trade practices and aggression towards the US and its allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific and beyond, including its unacceptable and provocative behaviour against India and Taiwan. The lawmakers wrote a letter to Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, ahead of their upcoming trips to Beijing. “The Chinese Communist Party has stepped up its aggression in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond,” the Republican Senators led by Marco Rubio wrote in the letter. They urged them to avoid giving the ruling CCP a propaganda win and hold the CCP accountable. As we have seen recently, General Secretary Xi has engaged in unacceptable and provocative behaviour in the Taiwan Strait and along the Himalayan border with India,” the letter said. According to the Senators, the CCP is the worst offender of human rights.