BEIJING听–听US听颁辞尘尘别谤肠别听Secretary Gina Raimondo arrived in Beijing late on Sunday for a four-day visit aimed at听产辞辞蝉迟ing business ties between the world’s two largest economies while declaring American national security听迟谤补诲别听measures off-limits for debate.
“If you wanted to put a tagline to the trip and the mission, it鈥檚 protect what we must and promote where we can,” Ms. Raimondo told reporters on Friday before departing for听颁丑颈苍补. “I’m not going to pull my punches next week when I am there but I intend to be practical.”
Relations are tense as the United States works with allies to block聽, while Beijing is restricting shipments from prominent chip company Micron Technology and 聽$1.5 million for doing “unapproved statistical work.”
Ms. Raimondo, who was greeted upon arrival by Chinese听颁辞尘尘别谤肠别听Ministry official Lin Feng, will hold bilateral meetings with Chinese officials on Monday and Tuesday in Beijing before she heads to Shanghai. She will be joined by US Ambassador to听颁丑颈苍补聽Nicholas Burns.
Ms. Raimondo spoke to President Joe Biden on Thursday about her visit and his message was enhanced dialogue with听颁丑颈苍补聽can ease tensions.
“We want to have a stable commercial relationship, and core to that is regular communication,” Raimondo said. “We need to communicate to avoid conflict.”
Republicans in Congress聽Raimondo will establish a working group with听颁丑颈苍补聽during the visit to discuss US semiconductor export controls.
Ms. Raimondo did not confirm plans for any working group but emphasized she would tell Chinese officials “when it comes to national security we don’t negotiate. We don’t give concessions. We don’t compromise.”
The United States is听耻蝉ing government incentives and tax policy to wean American businesses off Chinese supply chains and聽.
“Just because we’re investing in America does not mean at all that we want to decouple from听颁丑颈苍补‘s economy,” Ms. Raimondo said.
China‘s ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, who met Ms. Raimondo last week, said听颁丑颈苍补听蝉别别办蝉听“mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation”.
The White Hous别听聽some U.S. investment in sensitive technologies in听颁丑颈苍补聽and plans to soon finalize sweeping export restrictions on聽.
‘MANY CHALLENGES’
Ms. Raimondo, the fourth high-level US official to visit听颁丑颈苍补聽recently, is the first聽commerc别听secretary to make the trip in seven years.
She spoke to more than 100 senior business leaders before the visit and vowed to raise their concerns.
“There are so many challenges to doing business in听颁丑颈苍补聽and exporting to听颁丑颈苍补聽and听颁丑颈苍补‘s unfair trading practices have hurt American workers and companies,” Raimondo said.
Wendy Cutler, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, said that with a possible visit to the U.S. by President Xi Jinping less than three months away, “Beijing has an interest in working with the United States to identify practical areas in the economic relationship where cooperation may be possible.”
Ms. Raimondo also wants to听产辞辞蝉迟聽travel and听迟辞耻谤颈蝉尘听between the two countries.
颁丑颈苍补听and the United States agreed this month to double the number of flights permitted between them – still a fraction of the number before the pandemic.
If听颁丑颈苍补聽returned to 2019 US听迟辞耻谤颈蝉尘听levels, it would add $30 billion to the US economy and 50,000 US jobs, Ms. Raimondo said.
Ms. Raimondo is considering a visit to Shanghai Disneyland, a joint venture of Walt Disney and Chinese state-owned Shendi Group, a source told Reuters.
Another looming question is when Chinese airlines might resume taking deliveries of Boeing 737 MAX jets after a four-year hiatus. Raimondo said in 2021 that the Chinese government was preventing its airlines from buying “tens of billions of dollars” in Boeing aircraft.
Boeing says it is ready to deliver airplanes to Chinese airlines “when that time comes.” – Reuters
