U.S. Commerce Secretary Meets With China’s Economic Czar Amid Tensions

High-ranking United States and Chinese officers held a collection of financial coverage conferences on Tuesday in Beijing, within the newest signal that each nations are attempting to cease the lengthy deterioration of their relationship and restore communications.

Gina Raimondo, the U.S. commerce secretary, and different high officers from her division started assembly early Tuesday afternoon with Vice Premier He Lifeng on the Great Hall of the People, subsequent to Tiananmen Square within the coronary heart of Beijing.

Seated in a red-carpeted reception room on the second flooring of the Great Hall, Mr. He stated at the beginning of their assembly that he was able to work with Ms. Raimondo, and hoped the United States would undertake rational and sensible insurance policies. She responded that whereas the United States wouldn’t compromise on problems with nationwide safety, it additionally wouldn’t attempt to disconnect from China or maintain again China’s financial growth.

Mr. He has broad oversight of financial coverage as one among 4 vice premiers, and has additionally been carefully related to Xi Jinping, China’s high chief, since 1985. That was when the 2 males started collaborating on financial growth as officers in Xiamen, a metropolis in Fujian Province on the southeastern coast of China.

Ms. Raimondo, greater than midway by way of a four-day journey, is the fourth Biden administration official to journey to China in three months. American officers are attempting to advertise financial ties with China whereas additionally clamping down, within the curiosity of nationwide safety, on exports of superior applied sciences with army functions.

On Monday, Ms. Raimondo and China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, agreed to carry common discussions between the 2 nations on business points. Those talks are set to incorporate enterprise leaders in addition to authorities officers. The two governments additionally agreed to trade data, beginning with a gathering by their senior aides on Tuesday morning in Beijing, about how the United States enforces its export controls.

Ms. Raimondo met on Tuesday with China’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, Hu Heping. That assembly got here lower than three weeks after Beijing lifted a ban on group excursions to the United States that it had imposed through the pandemic, when China virtually utterly closed its borders for almost three years.

The two ministers agreed on the assembly that the United States and China would host a gathering in China early subsequent 12 months to advertise the journey business, the most recent in a collection of enterprise promotion actions that Ms. Raimondo has been organizing.

Travel from China to the United States stays at lower than a 3rd of prepandemic ranges, the United States Travel Association, an business group, stated on Saturday.