US companies have reported growing difficulties operating in China (representative)
Washington:
The United States wants to work with China to solve problems such as climate change and artificial intelligence, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Chinese Premier Li Qiang at a meeting in Beijing on Tuesday.
Gina Raimondo is the latest administration official of US President Joe Biden to visit China in an effort to strengthen communications, especially on economics and defense, amid concerns that friction between the two superpowers could spiral out of control.
“There are other areas of global concern, such as climate change, artificial intelligence and the fentanyl crisis, where we want to work with you as two world powers to do what is right for all of humanity,” said Gina Raimondo in the Great Hall of the United Nations. . the People’s Assembly.
Li Qiang said healthy economic relations and trade cooperation would be beneficial not only to their countries, but also to the whole world.
The United States and China used to be each other’s biggest trading partners, but Washington now trades more with neighboring countries Canada and Mexico, while Beijing trades more with Southeast Asia.
Earlier on Tuesday, Gina Raimondo told Chinese economy chief He Lifeng that the US is not trying to break away from its rival.
“While we will never compromise in protecting our national security, I want to be clear that we will never try to disconnect or hold back China’s economy,” she said.
He Lifeng voiced Chinese concerns over topics such as “Section 301” US tariffs, export controls and cross-investment restrictions, the Chinese government said.
Former US President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on thousands of imports from China in 2018 and 2019, valued at the time at about $370 billion, after an investigation found China was misappropriating US intellectual property and forcing US companies to sell sensitive transfer technology to conduct business.
Prior to her meeting with Lifeng He, Gina Raimondo and Tourism Minister Hu Hepin agreed to hold the 14th China-US Tourism Leadership Summit in China in the first half of next year, a sign that improving ties between people is important to deepen the bilateral relationship.
The move was designed to revive and develop tourism cooperation between the two nations, the Commerce Department said. The last such summit took place in Seattle in 2019.
Raimondo has made promoting travel and tourism a big part of her journey. China and the United States agreed this month to double the number of flights allowed between them, which is still only a fraction of the number before the pandemic.
If China returns to 2019 U.S. tourism levels, it would add $30 billion to the U.S. economy and create 50,000 U.S. jobs, Gina Raimondo said.
Gina Raimondo is planning a visit to Shanghai Disneyland, a joint venture of Walt Disney and the Chinese state-owned Shendi Group, on Wednesday.
US companies have reported mounting difficulties operating in China, which has sharply criticized US efforts to block the country’s access to advanced semiconductors.
The first meeting of an initiative to share information on export control enforcement took place Tuesday at the Commerce Department in Beijing, led by Matthew Axelrod, the US assistant secretary for export enforcement.
Such an exchange provided a platform to reduce misunderstandings about US national security policy, Raimondo said Monday, but she added that Washington would not compromise or negotiate on such matters.
Raimondo said Monday she had raised concerns about restrictions on chipmakers Intel and Micron during more than four hours of talks on economic and trade issues with Commerce Secretary Wang Wentao on a range of US business issues.
China said the talks were a “rational, candid and constructive communication”.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is published through a syndicated feed.)
