Raimondo strikes upbeat note

United States Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo yesterday talked up American firms' desire to do business in China and her hopes for further engagement with Beijing on market access.

Raimondo said in Shanghai she had not expected any breakthroughs on issues affecting US firms such as Intel, Micron, Boeing, Visa and Mastercard in her first meetings, but she did hope to "see some results" in the next few months following her four-day visit to Beijing and Shanghai.

There was was strong appetite among American firms to make the China-US relationship work, she said, but while some actions of the Chinese leadership have been positive the situation on the ground needed to match the rhetoric.

The commerce secretary is the latest Biden administration official to visit China in a bid to strengthen communications, particularly on economics and defense, amid concern friction between the two superpowers could spiral out of control.

Raimondo insists Washington does not want to decouple from China, but on Tuesday she also remarked that American companies had complained to her that China has become "uninvestible," pointing to fines, raids and other actions by Beijing.

Her comment on the difficulties US businesses face has shone a harsh light on trade and investment flows between the rivals.

Wang Wenbin, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, cited Premier Li Qiang's remarks during his meeting with Raimondo on Tuesday.

"Politicizing and securitizing economic and trade issues not only seriously affects the relationship and mutual trust between the two countries," he said. "It also harms the interests of their businesses and peoples."

Companies have been at the center of a power struggle between the countries for several years, with Beijing criticizing American efforts to block China's access to advanced semiconductors through export controls. On that, Raimondo said export control dialogue was to reduce misunderstandings.

And in opening remarks at a meeting yesterday morning with Shanghai Communist Party secretary Chen Jining, Raimondo struck a positive tone, saying she wanted to discuss "concrete ways that we can work together to accomplish business goals and to bring about a more predictable business environment, a predictable regulatory environment and a level playing field for American businesses."

Chen said a stable relationship between China and the United States was crucial for the world, noting that Shanghai had the highest concentration of American businesses in China.