Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said she challenged Chinese officials over her hacked emails before last month’s visit there, stressing “there is no commerce secretary who is tougher than me on China.”
Just over a month before Raimondo departs for an Aug. 27–30 visit to Beijing and Shanghai, Microsoft disclosed the email accounts of “China-based actors” across 25 organizations — including the US Department of Commerce and State.
“They have hacked me, which is not appreciated in the slightest. I brought it up,” Raimondo said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“I present many of our grievances on behalf of our national security concerns, US labor concerns, US business concerns. I didn’t pull any punches.”
Raimondo’s visit to China marks the first time a US commerce secretary has visited the rival power in nearly five years.
Gina Raimondo said that one of her biggest achievements from the China visit was to create better communication on export issues.AP
“It’s a complicated relationship. There is no doubt about it. We are in fierce competition with China at every level, and anyone who tells you differently is naive,” he added. “We have to manage this competition. Conflict is not in anyone’s interest.”
Republicans like Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Ia.) blasted Raimondo for the China visit following the email hack as Beijing grapples with a booming economy.
Gina Raimondo visits Shanghai Disneyland in Shanghai, China on August 30, 2023.AP
“The Biden administration must stop taking the bait,” Ernst said, Fox News reported. “Make no mistake, (the Chinese Communist Party) is still trying to undermine the United States at all times. No one should be more aware of this hostility than Secretary Raimondo, who has been hacked by the CCP but still goes to our own enemy territory to negotiate.”
Raimondo, the former two-term governor of Rhode Island, countered that he “didn’t sugar coat anything” during his trip and insisted “no one is more realistic than I am about the challenges” with China.
Gina Raimondo takes off after a press conference at Boeing Shanghai Aviation Services near Shanghai Pudong International Airport on Aug. 30.AP
During his visit, Raimondo stressed to his counterpart that the US was not seeking to separate its economy from rival powers in Asia.
However, he insisted that he was firm with China.
“There is no commerce secretary who is tougher than me on China,” Raimondo told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “Nearly one-third of the companies from China on the Entity List have been placed there under President Biden’s administration and my leadership at Commerce.” .
The Entity List details foreign companies that the US requires a special license for technology transfer.
Gina Raimondo chats with officials as she visits Shanghai Disneyland in Shanghai on August 30, 2023.POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Raimondo also pointed out that stable commercial relations between the US and China could serve as “ballast” for geopolitical and military conflicts between the two superpowers.
One major area where commercial and national security concerns overlap is semiconductors, which has drawn heavy attention from the Biden administration.
“No one has ever said we want to break away from China as it relates to semiconductors,” Raimondo said on CNN. “We send billions of dollars of semiconductors every year to China which is good for the American economy and American business. And we will continue to do so.”
“What we will do and we will not compromise is to block the sale to China of our most advanced and most powerful semiconductors, which China wants for its military.”
Raimondo’s visit marks the latest move by the Biden administration to China in an effort to thaw frosty relations between Washington and Beijing.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited China in June and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen went in July.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
