; (B) advancing economic prosperity; and (C) promoting respect for fundamental human rights. (6) In 2017, the Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate held a series of hearings on United States leadership in the Indo-Pacific region, in which— (A) experts, including Representative Randy Forbes, Ambassador Robert Gallucci, Ms. Tami Overby, Dr. Robert Orr, Ambassador Derek Mitchell, Ambassador Robert King, Mr. Murray Hiebert, and others detailed the security challenges, economic opportunities, and imperatives of promoting rule of law, human rights, and democracy, in the Indo-Pacific region; and (B) Dr. Graham Allison, the Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, testified, As realistic students of history, Chinese leaders recognize that the role the U.S. has played since World War II as the architect and underwriter of regional stability and security has been essential to the rise of Asia, including China itself. But they believe that as the tide that brought the U.S. to Asia recedes, America must leave with it. Much as Britain’s role in the Western Hemisphere faded at the beginning of the twentieth century, so must America’s role in Asia as the region’s historic superpower resumes its place. . (7) The United States National Security Strategy (referred to in this Act as the National Security Strategy ), which was released in December 2017, states— (A) A geopolitical competition between free and repressive visions of world order is taking place in the Indo-Pacific region. The region, which stretches from the west coast of India to the western shores of the United States, represents the most populous and economically dynamic part of the world. The U.S. interest in a free and open Indo-Pacific extends back to the earliest days of our republic.