Mr. He has broad oversight of economic policy as one of four vice premiers, and has also been closely associated with Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, since 1985. That was when the two men began collaborating on economic development as officials in Xiamen, a city in Fujian Province on the southeastern coast of China.
Ms. Raimondo, more than halfway through a four-day trip, is the fourth senior Biden administration official to travel to China in three months. American officials are trying to promote economic ties with China while also clamping down, in the interest of national security, on exports of advanced technologies with military applications.
On Monday, Ms. Raimondo and China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, agreed to hold regular discussions between the two countries on commercial issues. Those talks are set to include business leaders as well as government officials. The two governments also agreed to exchange information, starting with a meeting by their senior aides on Tuesday morning in Beijing, about how the United States enforces its export controls.
Ms. Raimondo met on Tuesday with China’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, Hu Heping. That meeting came less than three weeks after Beijing lifted a ban on group tours to the United States that it had imposed during the pandemic, when China almost completely closed its borders for nearly three years.
The two ministers agreed at the meeting that the United States and China would host a gathering in China early next year to promote the travel industry, the latest in a series of business promotion activities that Ms. Raimondo has been organizing.
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