Gina Raimondo, the U.S. commerce secretary, has headed to Beijing in an attempt to find common economic ground with China while navigating an increasingly acrimonious geopolitical competition.
“The plan and the hope is that our commercial relationship, if done right, can stabilize the political relationship,” Raimondo said Monday in Beijing as she announced the first of a pair of economics-related discussion formats.
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Her follows on the heels of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who declared President Joe Biden’s desire to avoid a “winner-take-all” struggle between Washington and Beijing. And her trip comes as Chinese Communist officials face a dilemma posed by persistent economic struggles, deepening the need for improved relations even as they clash with the United States and its allies in security matters.
"The Chinese Communist Party leaders are always paranoid,” Dr. Andrew Scobell, a distinguished fellow with the United States Institute of Peace, told the Washington Examiner. “Even though they've grown stronger militarily, and economically, and have been closing the gap with the U.S., that they still see as their prime adversary, they’re still feeling very vulnerable, especially where the economy is concerned.”
Chinese officials have thus sought to bifurcate the economic and security channels of their relationship with the United States. The tactic was on display this week, as Chinese state media hailed Raimondo’s visit as an opportunity "for a breakthrough” in the overall relationship, while officials and state media adopted a belligerent tone concerning the South China Sea.
“How China and relevant countries solve the dispute is none of Washington's business,” the Global Times, a hawkish Chinese propaganda organ, wrote Monday. “If the U.S. dares to provoke China's core interests in the South China Sea, it will certainly face a head-on blow from China.”
China's claim of sovereignty has been rejected by an international tribunal that heard a suit brought by the Philippines, a key U.S. ally in the region.
That ominous editorial was issued in response to a U.S. admiral who sought to assure Manila of American support in the wake of an incident in which Chinese Coast Guard vessels fired water cannons at the Philippine vessels in a bid to interfere with a Philippine effort to resupply forces stationed in some of the disputed waters.
“My forces are out here for a reason,” U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Karl Thomas said Sunday. “There’s really no better example of aggressive behavior than the activity on 5 August on the shoal.”
The admiral’s comments drew a rebuke from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, even as Chinese Communist commerce officials settled in to host Raimondo.
The United States has a mutual defense treaty with the Philippines, which occupies vital real estate for any effort to project military power in the Indo-Pacific region.
Raimondo has drawn the task of promoting U.S. business interests while working to deprive Beijing of access to Western technology that could be turned against the United States and its allies.
“There are many industries — food, entertainment ... [in which] there is no national security risks to the United States selling coffee and health and beauty aids to China,” Raimondo told the Wilson Center last month. “So deciding which technologies — whether it's artificial intelligence or semiconductors or software or hardware — that the United States has that China wants to advance their military capability, figuring out what that is and working with our allies to deny China that capability.”
The new dialogues appear designed to advance each priority. One forum will include business representatives, while the other will be focused on a discussion of export control regulations, which the Biden administration characterized as an explanatory format, not an opportunity for Beijing to argue against the policies.
"We're not negotiating what our policies are going to be,” an unnamed U.S. official told Reuters.
Still, Raimondo’s priorities could be complicated by the combined opposition from Beijing and major U.S. corporations, analysts suggested.
“China is hoping that the Commerce Department will ease up its implementation of the policy,” Dr. Miles Yu, director of the Hudson Institute’s China Center, told the Washington Examiner. “I think that Secretary Raimondo is basically going to say, we’re not going to change our policy, our export controls. Of course, the devil is in the details.”
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Raimondo seemed gratified Monday by the pledge to have regular conversations with economic officials, in contrast to the cold shoulder given to U.S. security officials.
“I think it’s a very good sign that we agreed to concrete dialogue, and I would say, more than just kind of nebulous commitments to continue to talk, this is an official channel,” Raimondo told the New York Times.