WASHINGTON: US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will travel to China next week for meetings with senior Chinese government officials and US business leaders, the department said on Tuesday (Aug 22), marking the latest in a recent series of high-level visits.
Last month, Raimondo vowed to go forward with the visit despite the reported Chinese hacking of her department’s emails.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Raimondo will carry a message that the US is not seeking to decouple from China, but will protect its national security. She will reinforce that the US is focused on sustaining an economic relationship with China, he added.
Raimondo met with Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to the United States, on Tuesday ahead of the trip.
Raimondo “raised issues of importance to the United States and American businesses and workers and discussed issues relating to the US-China commercial relationship, challenges faced by US businesses, and areas for potential cooperation,” the Commerce Department said.
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 Commerce Department on Monday removed the 27 Chinese companies from its “Unverified List”.
Companies are given that designation if the US cannot complete on-site visits to determine if they can be trusted to receive sensitive US technology exports. Companies on the list cannot use licence exceptions for exports.
Commerce said the removal “demonstrates the concrete benefit companies receive when they or a host government cooperates” to complete checks.
Raimondo “looks forward to constructive discussions” during the visit to Beijing and Shanghai from Aug 27 to 30, the department said in a statement.
Last week, China said it welcomed Raimondo’s expected visit.
Raimondo said recently that she wanted to raise “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 trip follows a four-day visit last month by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who held more than 10 hours of meetings with senior officials in Beijing.
The US and China agreed this month to approve twice the number of passenger flights now permitted by air carriers between the two countries, in a rare sign of cooperation between the world’s largest two economies. – Reuters