BEIJING, Aug 29 (CNA) - US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo opened talks with Chinese government officials on Monday (Aug 28), saying it is "profoundly important" for the world's two largest economies to have a stable economic relationship.
Raimondo is looking to boost business ties as US firms have reported increasing challenges with operating in China, while China has sharply criticised US efforts to block its access to advanced semiconductors.
Raimondo said the entire world expects the United States and China will have a stable economic relationship. The two countries share more than US$700 billion in annual trade.
"We share US$700 billion dollars of trade and I concur with you that it is profoundly important that we have a stable economic relationship," she said, according to a readout from the US Commerce Department.
"It's a complicated relationship. "It's a challenging relationship. We will of course disagree on certain issues," Raimondo said. "I think we can make progress if we are direct, open and practical."
Raimondo arrived in Beijing on Sunday and was met by Lin Feng, the director of the commerce ministry's Americas and Oceania department, as well as US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns.
During her trip, she will also travel to China's economic powerhouse Shanghai, the US Commerce Department said. She will leave on Wednesday.
Her visit is the latest in a series of high-level trips to China by US officials in recent months as Washington works to cool trade tensions with Beijing.
The trips could culminate in a meeting between their leaders, with US President Joe Biden saying recently that he was expecting to sit down with China's Xi Jinping this year.
China's Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said US-China economic relations matter not just to the two countries, but also the rest of the world and expressed appreciation for Raimondo's remarks that she likes trade with China.
He said he was ready to work together to "foster a more favourable policy environment for stronger cooperation between our businesses to bolster bilateral trade and investment in a stable and predictable manner".
Raimondo said the United States and China have "worked over the summer to establish new information exchanges and working groups that will enable us to have more consistent engagement in our relationship".
