Joe Biden’s trade chief and China’s commerce minister have discussed economic and trade tensions, in the latest sign of efforts to improve relations between the two administrations.
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. He also criticized Beijing’s actions against US companies and its “anti-market” approach to economic and trade policy, according to a statement from his office.
According to a report from China’s commerce ministry, Wang spoke about China’s concerns over Taiwan, Trump-era tariffs on American companies that buy from China and Biden’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework – a trade deal that excludes China and focuses on infrastructure. , courage and purification. strength.
The meeting took place five days after the US president predicted a “thaw” in relations at the end of the G7 summit. It also came a day after Wang held talks with US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, in the first visit by a Chinese official to the US capital since 2020.
After Friday’s meeting, both sides stressed the need to open channels of communication.
At the beginning of May, Wang Yi, the ambassador of China, met with the national security advisor of the United States, Jake Sullivan, for talks in Vienna, in order to strengthen the relationship between the countries.
Experts are now increasing the calls to Washington and Beijing’s advantage rare opportunity at the high-level talks between the two countries.
This includes the possibility of new talks on climate change between John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua, the climate envoys of the world’s two largest economies, who have previously held one. promised to take action on climate change although there is a difficult relationship. There is also hope that Xi and Biden will meet at the Apec summit in the US in November.
However, with US-China relations at their most vulnerable in decades, attempts at diplomatic stability are in place struggling to get off the groundthe two sides are at odds over new technology access restrictions and Xi’s support for Vladimir Putin in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
China last week ordered the expansion of many of its factories stop buying from US chipmaker Micron, just hours after the G7 issued a stern rebuke to Beijing. On Wednesday, Xi met with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Beijing and called for trade, economic and energy cooperation with Russia, while pressuring the West to reduce aid to Putin.
Also on Friday, the Justice Department released indictments against two Los Angeles residents for bribery and participating in a government-led crackdown against the US-based Falun Gong, a religious group banned in China.
“The Department of Justice continues to expose the Chinese government’s efforts to suppress countries, this time through bribery,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement.
Additional reporting by James Politi in Washington and Maiqi Ding in Beijing