Editorial | Raimondo talks can be seen as a success on US-China communication front
- Despite there being no breakthroughs, progress on addressing bilateral tensions was made by China and the US via a joint economic working group that will meet at least twice a year
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is the fourth high-ranking American visitor to China this summer. That may sound as if bilateral ties are back on track after being derailed over the Taiwan issue, an alleged Chinese spy balloon and currently a tech war.
But trust repeatedly stretched to breaking point in an instant takes much longer to repair. Raimondo’s visit is a case in point.
There are no breakthroughs to show for her four days in Beijing and Shanghai, no big announcements, nor positive signs of an early summit between presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden. But her visit may apparently be counted a success.
Progress is to be found in better communication that paves the way forward. For example, to address day-to-day bilateral tensions, the two sides agreed to set up a joint government-private sector economic working group to meet at least twice a year, after talks between Raimondo and her Chinese counterpart, Wang Wentao.
However, analysts remain unconvinced commercial, trade and investment problems can be substantially alleviated, and mutual trust rebuilt, given the scale of tensions generated by the American attempt to deny China critical technologies. This has been the core of the conflict since the Biden administration launched the tech war last year and stepped it up recently through curbs on investments in Chinese tech seen to have security implications.