U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo arrives for a gathering together with her Chinese counterpart Wang Wentao, on the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing, Monday, Aug. 28, 2023.
Andy Wong | Pool | via Reuters
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said U.S. corporations have complained to her that China has grow to be “uninvestable,” pointing to fines, raids and other actions against firms which have made it too dangerous to do business on the earth’s second-largest economy.
The comments, made to reporters onboard a train as her delegation of U.S. officials headed from Beijing to Shanghai, provided a bleak picture of how U.S. firms view China and were the bluntest Raimondo has made on her trip.
“Increasingly I hear from American business that China is uninvestable since it’s grow to be too dangerous,” she said. “So businesses search for other opportunities, they appear for other countries, they appear for other places to go.”
Raimondo said that there was “no rationale given” for Chinese actions against chipmaker Micron Technology, whose products were restricted by Beijing earlier this yr and rejected any comparisons to U.S. export controls. “There was limited due process and that is why I brought it up.”
Earlier within the day she had said america desires to work with China to unravel problems akin to climate change and artificial intelligence, speaking with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at a gathering in Beijing on Tuesday.
Raimondo is the most recent Biden administration official to go to China in a bid to strengthen communications, particularly on economy and defense, amid concerns that friction between the 2 superpowers could spiral uncontrolled.
“There are other areas of worldwide concern, akin to climate change, artificial intelligence, the fentanyl crisis, where we would like to work with you as two global powers to do what’s right for all of humanity,” Raimondo told Li at their meeting within the Great Hall of the People.