(RepublicanDaily.org) – While tensions between the U.S. and China continue to be high, all is not lost as U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is currently visiting China to talk about “issues relating to the U.S.-China commercial relationship,” CNBC reported. Her trip concludes on Wednesday, August 30th.
Raimondo will have meetings – “constructive discussions” – with high-level Chinese government officials as well as American business leaders in an effort to smooth out at least some of the creases in the two countries’ fraught relationship. Depending on the outcome of the talks, the Commerce secretary’s visit may also open the door for a U.S. visit from Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Ties between China and the U.S. have been strained of late, following the discovery of a Chinese surveillance balloon flying across the U.S. earlier in the year. Tensions have also increased because of moves by Washington to investigate Chinese modules in U.S. appliances and tech devices, and a ban imposed by President Joe Biden prohibiting American companies from making any further investments in a number of key industries in China.
Ahead of the visit, Chinese officials have also called for the U.S. to renew a 1979 Jimmy Carter-era bilateral science and technology cooperation agreement. The agreement has been renewed every five years since it was first signed and the latest is set to expire by the end of August. The U.S. is seeking to extend the agreement, but wants certain amendments implemented before doing so.
Jake Sullivan, who serves as National Security Advisor, said that the Raimondo’s visit is aimed at ensuring that “there is a basic stable foundation in the relationship” between the two countries, a relationship he describes as “complex” and “competitive.” He also said that as long as China is “playing by the rules and is operating as a responsible actor in the global economy,” a stable Chinese economy would be a benefit to the world.
China is currently experiencing an economic downturn after an expected post-pandemic recovery fell well short of expectations. The country’s real estate and housing industry is in very dire straits, on top of massive deflation, loss of global trust, and widespread corruption in its healthcare system, among other things. Some have even drawn parallels between China’s current state to that of the old Soviet Union before it collapsed in the 1980’s and the early 1990’s economic slowdown of Japan.
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