Senior US and Chinese officials held a series of economic policy meetings on Tuesday in Beijing, in the latest sign that the two countries are trying to halt the long deterioration in their relationship and restore contacts.
Gina Raimondo, US Secretary of Commerce, and other senior officials from her department began meeting early Tuesday afternoon with Vice Premier He Living in the Great Hall of the People, next to Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing.
Sitting in the red-carpeted reception room on the second floor of the Great Hall, Mr. Hu said at the beginning of their meeting that he was ready to work with Ms. Raimondo, and hoped that the United States would adopt rational and pragmatic policies. She replied that although the United States would not compromise on national security issues, it would also not try to break away from China or impede China’s economic development.
He enjoys wide-ranging oversight of economic policy as one of the four vice premiers and has also been closely associated with Xi Jinping, China’s supreme leader, since 1985. That was when the two men began cooperating on economic development as officials in Xiamen, a city-state in Fujian province on Southeast coast of China.
Ms. Raimondo, who was in the middle of the four-day trip, is the fourth Biden administration official to travel to China in three months. American officials are trying to boost economic ties with China while also, in the interest of national security, stifling exports of advanced technologies with military applications.
On Monday, Ms. Raimondo and Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao agreed to hold regular discussions between the two countries on trade issues. These talks will include business leaders as well as government officials. The two governments also agreed to share information, starting with a meeting of their top aides Tuesday morning in Beijing, about how the United States implements export controls.
On Tuesday, Ms. Raimundo met with Chinese Minister of Culture and Tourism Hu Heping. The meeting came less than three weeks after Beijing lifted a ban on group trips to the United States that it imposed during the pandemic, when China closed its borders almost completely for nearly three years.
During the meeting, the two ministers agreed that the United States and China will host a meeting in China early next year to promote the travel industry, which is the latest in a series of business promotion activities organized by Ms. Raimondo.
The American Travel Association, an industry group, said on Saturday that travel from China to the United States remains at less than a third of pre-pandemic levels.