US and China Commerce Leaders Unable to Agree

The U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo met with her Chinese counterpart Wang Wentao on May 25, but the meeting failed to make any significant progress in the floundering Sino-American trade relationship.

Raimondo “raised concerns” about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) actions against U.S. companies in China, according to a statement released by the Commerce Department.

Wang, likewise, expressed concerns about U.S. efforts to prevent the regime from obtaining advanced semiconductors and other critical technologies, a statement from the CCP’s Commerce Ministry said.

The talks included “candid and substantive discussions on issues relating to the U.S.-China commercial relationship.” These included discussion of areas of trade and investment ripe for “potential cooperation,” but neither side gave any indication that such discussion bore fruit, nor did they specify what areas cooperation might take place in.

Despite the lack of progress, Raimondo and Wang promised to strengthen exchanges on trade issues in the future.

Biden Admin Seeks Talks While CCP Suppresses Foreign Businesses

The meeting of the commerce leaders took place under the shadow of a recent series of crackdowns in China, in which the CCP raided consulting firms and other foreign businesses, seizing private documents and detaining employees without apparent cause.

The raids, including on U.S. companies Bain & Co., Capvision, and Mintz Group, follow the controversial expansion of national security and intelligence laws in China, which allow the regime to deny anyone in the country the right to leave.

The CCP has given no explanation for the raids, which have drawn international outrage and sparked fears of increased rights abuses by the regime against employees of foreign companies. They appear to be part of a wider crackdown on foreign companies by the CCP, however, which has sent foreign investors fleeing from China.

Despite the increasing hostility towards foreign firms in China, the Biden administration is doubling down on its efforts to woo the CCP regime back into regular diplomatic relations.