Joe Biden’s top trade official and China’s commerce minister held talks on the economic and trade dispute, in the latest signs of an exploratory effort to stabilize relations between the two countries. superpower.
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai met with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Detroit on Friday. She expressed concern about Beijing’s actions against US companies and its “non-market” approach to the economy and trade policy, according to a statement from her office. grandma.
According to a statement by China’s Ministry of Commerce, Mr. Wang highlighted China’s worries over Taiwan, Trump-era tariffs on US companies buying from China and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. Biden’s Binh Duong – a trade deal that excludes China and focuses on infrastructure, supply chain resilience and clean energy. .
The meeting comes five days after the US President predicted an imminent “thawing” in relations when the G7 summit ended. It also comes a day after Mr. Wang held talks with US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, in the first visit by a senior Chinese official to the US capital since 2020.
After Friday’s meeting, both sides stressed the need to maintain open channels of communication.
In early May, Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, met US national security adviser Jake Sullivan in Vienna in an effort to stabilize relations.
Analysts are now calling on Washington and Beijing to take advantage of a Rare opportunity for high-level bilateral discussions.
That includes the potential for a new round of global warming talks between John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua, the climate envoys of the world’s two largest economies, who previously commitment to joint action on climate change despite strained relations. There are also hopes that Mr. Xi and Mr. Biden may meet during the APEC leaders’ summit in the US in November.
However, with US-China relations at their lowest point in decades, efforts to improve diplomacy are struggling. struggle to make progresswith the two sides clashing over new restrictions on access to technology as well as Xi Jinping’s support of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
China last week ordered a bunch of its infrastructure companies stop buying from US chip maker Micronjust hours after the G7 issued its harshest criticism of Beijing.
On Wednesday, Xi met Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Beijing and called for strengthening trade, economic and energy ties with Moscow, resisting Western pressure to reduce his support for him. Putin.
Also on Friday, the Justice Department announced charges against two Los Angeles residents for bribery and participation in a state-directed scheme targeting Falun Gong practitioners based in Los Angeles. Based in the United States, the religious movement is outlawed in China.
“The Department of Justice continues to expose the Chinese government’s brazen attempts to commit transnational repression, this time through a bribery attempt,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.
Additional reporting by James Politi in Washington and Maiqi Ding in Beijing
