US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to visit China next week for talks
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will reinforce the message that the US is focused on sustaining an economic relationship with China.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
WASHINGTON – US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will travel to China next week for meetings with senior Chinese government officials and American business leaders, the latest in a recent series of high-level visits, the department said on Tuesday.
In July, Ms Raimondo vowed to go forward with the visit despite the reported Chinese hacking of her department’s e-mails.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Ms Raimondo will carry a message that the United States is not seeking to decouple from China, but will protect its national security.
He added that she will reinforce the message that the US is focused on sustaining an economic relationship with China.
On Tuesday, China welcomed the department’s decision to lift export control restrictions on 27 Chinese entities, saying it is conducive to normal trade between Chinese and US firms.
The US Department of Commerce on Monday removed 27 Chinese companies from its “unverified list”.
The department said the removal “demonstrates the concrete benefit companies receive when they or a host government cooperates” to complete checks.
Ms Raimondo “looks forward to constructive discussions” during the visit to Beijing and Shanghai from Sunday to next Wednesday, the department said.
The talks would cover issues related to the US-China commercial relationship, challenges faced by US businesses, and areas for potential cooperation, it added.
Last week, China said it welcomed Ms Raimondo’s expected visit.
Ms Raimondo said recently that she wanted to raise with China “really serious concerns about the way they are targeting US tech companies, about the way they don’t respect intellectual property but also try to find lanes of commerce”.
Her upcoming trip follows a four-day visit in July by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen,
The US and China agreed in August to approve twice the number of passenger flights now permitted by air carriers
Ms Raimondo was among a group of senior US officials whose e-mails were hacked in 2023 by a group Microsoft said was based in China, according to a source briefed on the matter.
Earlier, China’s embassy in Washington said that identifying the source of cyber attacks was complex and warned against groundless speculation and accusations.
In July, Ms Raimondo said the Biden administration was seeking to carefully target US controls on exports to China.
She met Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao in May, discussing trade, investment and export policies in what was until then the first US-China Cabinet-level exchange in months, after a string of trade and national security irritants derailed plans for re-engagement.
In April, Ms Raimondo warned that Chinese cloud companies could pose threats. Some Republican senators want her to add such companies to the entity list that imposes US export controls on foreign companies. REUTERS
