WASHINGTON -- Sen. Patty Murray is leaving on a four-day visit to China on Tuesday, embarking on her first trip to the Communist nation as the new chairwoman of a group that serves as the official conduit between the U.S. Senate and the Chinese government.

The Washington Democrat will lead a three-member Senate delegation that includes Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, Republican of Missouri, and Sen. Roland Burris, the Illinois Democrat. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in October tapped Murray to head the Senate's United States-China Inter-Parliamentary Group. The group is intended to foster better relations with China with the aim of improving cooperation on issues such as human rights, trade and security. China is Washington's second-largest market for exports. Canada is No. 1.

Murray previously visited China, along with eight other senators, in 2006, when she met with Chinese President Hu Jintao. In 1997, Murray was in China with a group of Washington state leaders when she received a call from the U.S. embassy that her father had suddenly fallen ill and died. She received especially heartfelt condolences from a Chinese official named Yang Jiechi, who four years later became the Chinese ambassador to the United States.

Murray has cited that incident as an example of the importance of personal relationships. She credits her bond with Yang, for example, for helping to diffuse tensions in 2001 after a Chinese aircraft attempted to intercept a U.S. Navy plane that was flying off the Chinese coast. The planes collided, killing the Chinese pilot and leaving the American crew -- stationed at the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station -- in the hands of Chinese authorities for days.

While in China next week, Murray will visit Beijing and Shanghai.