U.S. Does Not Want to ‘Decouple’ From China, Commerce Chief Says

High-ranking United States and Chinese officers held a sequence of financial coverage conferences on Tuesday in Beijing, within the newest signal that each international locations 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 on Tuesday afternoon met with Vice Premier He Lifeng on the Great Hall of the People, subsequent to Tiananmen Square within the coronary heart of Beijing. Mr. He has broad oversight of financial coverage, and has lengthy been carefully related to Xi Jinping, China’s high chief.

Seated in a red-carpeted reception room on the second flooring of the Great Hall, Mr. He mentioned at first 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 by laying out what the Biden administration sees as its priorities.

“The U.S.-China commercial relationship is one of the most globally consequential, and managing that relationship responsibly is critical to both our nations and indeed to the whole world,” Ms. Raimondo mentioned. “And while we will never of course compromise in protecting our national security, I want to be clear that we do not seek to decouple or to hold China’s economy back.”

Ms. Raimondo additionally met with Premier Li Qiang, China’s second-highest official. In remarks forward of that assembly, Ms. Raimondo mentioned that the United States hopes that the business ties between the 2 international locations “can provide stability for the overall relationship.” She added that there have been areas of world concern — equivalent to local weather change, synthetic intelligence and the fentanyl disaster — the place “the world is expecting us to step up together to solve these problems.”

The commerce secretary, greater than midway by means of a four-day journey, is the fourth senior 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 navy purposes.

On Monday, Ms. Raimondo and China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, agreed to carry common discussions between the 2 international locations 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 throughout the pandemic, when China virtually fully 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 yr to advertise the journey trade, the newest in a sequence 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 trade group, mentioned on Saturday.