WASHINGTON (Rifyu.com) – China’s commerce minister will visit the United States next week, to meet Washington’s commerce minister and top commerce officials, Chinese embassy spokeswoman in Washington Liu Pengyu said Thursday (18/5/2023).
Liu Pengyu was deep briefings online the Chinese embassy with journalists, adding that Beijing is open to communication at all levels with the United States, but only on the basis of mutual respect.
The Chinese embassy later said in an emailed statement that the two sides were still discussing the details of the plan.
A source familiar with the meeting plans said China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao was expected to meet Commerce Minister Gina Raimondo in Washington next week, before traveling to Detroit for an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) trade ministers meeting.
Wang will then meet US Trade Representative Katherine Tai on the sidelines of the meeting, which is scheduled for May 25-26.
Spokesmen for Tai and Raimondo’s offices did not respond to requests for comment.
Washington has expressed a desire to hold a high-level meeting with China in an effort to keep increasingly strained relations from leading to conflict.
President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, met China’s top diplomat Wang Yi last week in Vienna, and both sides recognize the need to do more following the alleged spy balloon incident that damaged relations between the superpowers, a senior US official says. .
Biden has attempted to have a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping but neither side offered updates on the prospect of such a call, or about the possibility of rescheduling US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Beijing.
Blinken postponed his planned February trip after the US shot down a Chinese balloon flying over a sensitive military site.
“It is very important for the US side to adopt the correct perception of China and we hope the US side will return to China’s rational and pragmatic policy so that the two countries can better develop themselves and prosper together,” Liu told reporters.
Liu said China and the US should put into practice what Xi and Biden agreed at their last meeting in November and properly handle sensitive issues such as Taiwan, the democratically self-governed island claimed by China.
The US and Taiwan on Thursday agreed to a preliminary trade pact, a move likely to anger China, which sees the island’s formal engagement with other countries as a violation of its sovereignty.
“China is open to communication at all levels and cooperation across fields with the United States, but only on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit,” Liu said before the trade deal was announced.
He added that the US should work with China to “create favorable conditions for future interactions between the two presidents.”
Some critics of the Biden administration, including Republican lawmakers, have questioned the US bid for Beijing to convene the summit, arguing that engagement over the past decades has failed to change China’s calculus on a range of trade, security and human rights issues.
Blinken, Raimondo and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have all expressed interest in visiting China.
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Translator: Apep Suhendar
Editor: Faisal Yunianto
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source: www.antaranews.com
