US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo yesterday met with China’s premier, calling for Beijing and Washington to work together to solve issues of global concern.
Raimondo’s trip to China is the latest by a senior US official as Washington seeks to defuse tensions with the world’s second-largest economy.
Yesterday she held another round of talks with Chinese officials, meeting Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) to stress the importance of open communication between the two powers.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Pointing to areas of “global concern” such as climate change, artificial intelligence and fentanyl addiction, she told Li that Washington wants to “work with you as two global powers to do what is right for all of humanity.”
“The world is expecting us to step up together to solve these problems,” she said.
Raimondo also reiterated the US position that it is not seeking to decouple its economy from China’s.
“We seek to maintain our US$700 billion commercial relationship with China, and we hope that that relationship can provide stability for the overall relationship,” she said.
Earlier yesterday, Raimondo met Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰), describing the US-China commercial relationship as “one of the most consequential” in the world.
“Managing that relationship responsibly is critical to both of our nations and indeed to the whole world,” she said during a part of the meeting open to journalists.
She said that the US would “never compromise in protecting our national security,” but added that Washington did not seek “to hold China’s economy back.”
He, in response, said Beijing was willing to work on “new, positive efforts to keep economic consensus and step up cooperation.”
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