Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is the newest member of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet to go to China as his administration tries to fix the deteriorating ties between the world’s two largest economies. She guarantees to be “practical” with out compromising the U.S. push to “responsibly” handle that financial relationship.
Raimondo plans conferences with Chinese officers and U.S. enterprise leaders in Beijing and Shanghai in an effort to “promote a healthy competition, a competition on a level playing field, playing by the rules.”
“I’m also very realistic and clear-eyed about the challenges. And the challenges are significant,” she instructed reporters earlier than leaving Washington on Saturday on a visit that ends Wednesday.
The secretary stated she needs to search out “actionable, concrete steps where we can move forward on the commercial relationship,” however she supplied few particulars. One matter to be mentioned is selling Chinese journey and tourism to the United States, with Raimondo noting the latest easing of restrictions on massive Chinese teams visiting the U.S.
Raimondo’s go to, just like the July journey by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, is supposed to indicate the administration’s willingness to companion with China on financial improvement at a time of escalating tensions on international coverage and nationwide safety and as Washington bolsters alliances with Japan, South Korea, Australia and the European Union.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a two-day cease in Beijing in June, the highest-level conferences in China previously 5 years. Blinken met with President Xi Jinping and the 2 agreed to stabilize U.S.-China ties, however higher communications between their militaries couldn’t be agreed upon.
There are divisions across the economic system, too, significantly after the imposition of U.S. international funding controls which have stung quite a few Chinese firms. China has accused the U.S. of “using the cover of ‘risk reduction’ to carry out ‘decoupling and chain-breaking,’” and has elevated its personal commerce in Asia.
The controls pertain to superior pc chips, microelectronics, quantum data applied sciences and synthetic intelligence. The U.S. says the hassle stemmed from nationwide safety targets relatively than financial pursuits, and that the classes coated had been deliberately slim.
The U.S. strikes are supposed to blunt China’s means to make use of American investments in its know-how firms to improve its navy, whereas preserving broader ranges of commerce which are very important to each nations. But China’s Ministry of Commerce stated it has “serious concern” about Biden’s govt order.
Raimondo stated the U.S. was not all for “containing China’s economic development.”
“We want the Chinese economy to prosper. We do not want to contain or hold back China,” she stated. “We do need to protect our national security, and we’re going to use our export controls to the fullest extent possible to do that.”
She stated makes an attempt to spice up the U.S. economic system by selling manufacturing, a centerpiece of Biden’s 2024 reelection marketing campaign, “does not mean, at all, that we want to decouple from China’s economy. And I plan to make that very clear in my meetings.”
“The U.S. and China share a large, dynamic, growing economic relationship,” Raimondo stated. “And both of our countries – in fact, the entire world – need us to manage that relationship responsibly.”
Raimondo added that she is searching for “to have a stable commercial relationship, and the core to that is regular communication.”
“It’s hard to solve problems in any relationship if you don’t communicate. And lack of communication results in rising tensions and a spiral to a bad place,” Raimondo stated.
China’s Ministry of Commerce has stated Raimondo’s go to got here on the invitation of Minister Wang Wentao. China Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin stated at Friday information convention, when requested about Raimondo’s travels, that “China and the US are in touch about bilateral engagement and exchange.”
Biden stated at a latest fundraiser in Utah for his reelection marketing campaign that China was a “ticking time bomb.”
“They have got some problems. That’s not good because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things,” the president stated, pointing to China’s latest declines in progress charges.
Raimondo stated she spoke with Biden earlier than leaving for China and that he requested her to convey the message that there’s “benefit to communicating to reduce tensions.”
“That does not mean compromise,” stated Raimondo, who added: “I’m not going to pull my punches, but I intend to be practical.”
The commerce secretary stated she spoke earlier than her journey with prime U.S. labor leaders and greater than 100 trade executives who’re anxious to do enterprise with China however had been “increasingly concerned” by the nation’s nonmarket practices, which makes competing for world enterprise tough.
“We all know that China has not followed through on the economic reforms that it has promised,” Raimondo stated. “And it’s clearly continuously committed to using non-market trade and investment practices, and that forces us to defend our businesses and workers.”
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