Jason Miles
According to persons familiar with the arrangement, senior Department of Commerce officials will visit Beijing and Shanghai the next week in an effort to lay the framework for a prospective trip by Secretary Gina Raimondo later this year.
A meeting between Raimondo and her Chinese counterparts would create outcomes that would justify the travel, according to Scott Tatlock, the deputy assistant secretary for China and Mongolia, and Elizabeth Economy, a senior counsellor to the secretary on China affairs.
The trip, according to a representative for the Commerce Department, was made “to meet with U.S. Commercial Service officers, government counterparts, and industry to discuss bilateral trade and commercial opportunities for U.S. businesses,” the spokesperson added.
The optics of a possible visit by Raimondo, the former governor of Rhode Island who is rumoured to have political ambitions beyond the position of Secretary of Commerce, however, might be risky if the visit yields no results, according to several involved with the preparations. For instance, during the recent visit of French President Emmanuel Macron, Beijing promised to deliver 160 Airbus aircraft, and Airbus consented to boost its local production.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit, scheduled for early February, was put off indefinitely as hostilities rose during the cross-country flight of a Chinese spy balloon.
The disagreements put a halt to the economic conversations between Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and her colleagues, but they have now picked back up. The White House was exploring possible visits by secretaries Yellen and Raimondo to “talk about economic issues,” according to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, who stated this in late March. “Keeping those lines of communication open is still valuable.”
Beijing has fallen short of crucial deadlines in a 2020 trade agreement that Raimondo has promised to uphold, including Beijing’s commitment to buy Boeing aeroplanes instead of Airbus ones.
In September 2021, Raimondo informed reporters that “China is delaying the purchase of tens of billions of dollars in Boeing aeroplanes that Chinese airlines have already ordered.” “There are a lot of American jobs at stake.”
Since then, Commerce has approached delicate trade matters on a case-by-case basis. Raimondo has taken a tough stance on high-tech exports that would promote China’s military aspirations, tightening regulations that prevent Beijing from obtaining top chips.
Raimondo has adopted a more dovish stance on TikTok, where there is strong bipartisan support for a ban. She told Bloomberg Businessweek, “The politician in me thinks you’re going to literally lose every voter under 35, forever.” “However much I hate TikTok—and I do, because I see the addiction in the bad s—that it serves kids—you know, this is America,” I said.
