US-China relations: Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo starts latest visit designed to keep tensions in check

Raimondo is the fourth senior official to visit the country in recent months as the two countries seek to stop tensions boiling over
Issues such as market access and anti-spying laws are expected to be on her agenda, while Beijing may raise curbs on sales to its semiconductor firms

US-China relations

William Zheng

Published: 10:33pm, 27 Aug 2023

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US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo arrived in China on Sunday night, visiting the world’s second-largest economy in the latest effort to keep the heated rivalry between the two countries in check.

Raimondo was met at the airport by Lin Feng, director of the Ministry of Commerce’s American and Oceania affairs department, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

It is Raimondo’s first trip to China, according to the report.

She is the fourth senior American official to travel to China in recent months, following President Joe Biden’s special envoy for climate change John Kerry, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Raimondo is expected to meet Chinese officials and business executives in Beijing and Shanghai.

She is expected to raise a range of issues including market access, raids on US consultancy firms, China’s ban on the sale of products from memory chip firm Micron Technology, data security and Beijing’s anti-espionage law.

Meanwhile, Beijing is expected to demand relaxation of US controls on the sale of chips, software and machinery to China’s semiconductor industry.

At the Brics summit in South Africa last week, her Chinese counterpart Wang Wentao delivered a prepared statement from Xi Jinping – after the Chinese leader unexpectedly skipped a business forum – that criticised the US for its tendency toward “hegemony”.

The speech called for the world to avoid “the abyss of a new cold war”, and in thinly veiled swipe at the US blamed “one country” that is “obsessed with maintaining hegemony [and] has gone out of its way to cripple emerging markets and developing countries”.

Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokeswoman Shu Jueting said on Thursday that Beijing would “declare its position” on certain “imminent” trade issues during Raimondo’s visit.