US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged more frequent communications at a G20 summit in Indonesia last November to avoid US-China tensions from spilling into a new Cold War.
But those plans suffered several setbacks, starting with the downing of a Chinese spy balloon in US coastal waters.
These irritants continued through last Sunday, when Group of Seven (G7) leaders pledged to resist China’s “economic coercion” and Beijing responded by declaring US memory chip maker Micron Technology a national security risk, banning its sales to key domestic industries.
The ban followed a series of raids on American consultancies in China.
On Monday, Wang met representatives of American firms in Shanghai, including Johnson & Johnson, 3M, Dow, Merck, and Honeywell, according to the Ministry of Commerce, telling them that “China will continue to welcome US-funded enterprises to develop in China and achieve win-win results”.
China has complained about the growing number of US export restrictions on advanced semiconductors and other high technology goods that could have military applications and security reviews that discourage Chinese investment in the United States.
Wang’s trip to the US comes after G7 leaders met in Hiroshima, at which US President Joe Biden and other G7 leaders took aim at China over “economic coercion” and said they would “de-risk” without “decoupling” from the world’s second-largest economy in everything from chips to minerals.
Raimondo, Blinken, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have all expressed interest in visiting China.
