Joe Biden’s top trade official and China’s commerce minister are meeting over an economic and trade dispute, the latest sign of tentative efforts to stabilize ties between the two superpowers.
US Trade Representative Catherine Tai met with China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference in Detroit on Friday. He expressed concern over Beijing’s behavior toward U.S. companies and its “non-market” approach to economic and trade policy, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.
According to a statement from China’s Ministry of Commerce, Mr. Wang has raised China’s concerns about Taiwan, Trump-era tariffs on U.S. companies buying from China, and Biden’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (which excludes China, builds infrastructure, supply chain resilience, trade agreements focused on cleanup). energy.
The meeting came five days after the US president predicted an imminent “thaw” in relations after the G7 summit. It also came a day after Wang met with US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimond, the first visit to the US capital by a Chinese official since 2020.
After Friday’s meeting, both sides stressed the need to keep communication channels open.
In early May, China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, met with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in Vienna in a bid to stabilize relations between the two countries.
Analysts are now increasingly calling on Washington and Beijing to take advantage of the policy. rare occasion Towards high-level bilateral talks.
This includes the possibility of a fresh restart of climate change negotiations between John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua, longtime climate change envoys for the world’s two largest economies. Pledge joint action on climate change Despite the strained relationship. There is also hope that Mr. Xi and Mr. Biden could meet at the APEC summit in the United States in November.
Still, U.S.-China relations are at their worst in decades, and efforts to stabilize diplomatic activity are urgent. I have trouble getting up off the groundThe two countries are clashing over new restrictions on access to technology and Xi Jinping’s support for Vladimir Putin in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
China last week told some infrastructure companies Stop buying from US chip maker Micron, just hours after the G7 released its harshest criticism of Beijing. Xi met with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Beijing on Wednesday to counter Western pressure to cut support for Putin and called for deepening trade, economic and energy ties with Russia.
Also on Friday, the Justice Department lifted charges against two Los Angeles residents of bribery and participation in a state-sponsored program targeting Falun Gong practitioners based in the United States.
“The Justice Department continues to expose the Chinese government’s brazen attempts to carry out a cross-border crackdown, this time of attempted bribery,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement.
Additional reporting by James Politi from Washington and Maiqi Ding from Beijing
