US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo on Thursday expressed concern about recent actions Beijing has taken against US companies in a meeting with Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao (王文濤).
The encounter marked the highest-level visit to the US by a Chinese official in more than two years.
Raimondo spoke about “the recent spate of PRC actions taken against US companies operating in the PRC,” during the meeting in Washington, the department said in a statement, using the abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China.
Photo: Reuters
She did not mention any company by name, but China on Sunday said it was targeting Idaho-based Micron Technology Inc’s products, citing national security reasons, a step that has triggered calls in Washington for retaliation.
The pair also had “candid and substantive” talks about issues relating to the US-China commercial relationship, including the overall environment in both countries for trade and investment, and areas for potential cooperation, the department said.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce in its own statement said that the meeting was candid and constructive, and that Wang expressed concerns about US chip policy and export controls with Raimondo.
Wang was on his way to an APEC forum in Detroit, Michigan, where economic coercion and reorienting supply chains were expected to be on the agenda.
He was expected to meet with US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) at the APEC gathering.
The trip fits a broader trend of Chinese officials traveling more often in the months since the country ended its COVID-19 restrictions.
It also coincides with a push by the administration of US President Joe Biden to prevent relations between the two countries from worsening after a series of episodes, ranging from the furor over an alleged spy balloon that traversed the US in February to tit-for-tat sanctions and export controls on semiconductors.
Speaking at the end of the G7 summit in Japan on Sunday, Biden expressed optimism that relations would “thaw very shortly.”
After that, Xie Feng (謝鋒) arrived in the US to serve as China’s new ambassador.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last