Raimondo ended a visit to Beijing and Shanghai with a pledge to restore the sorts of formal communication channels that had been severed over years of deteriorating ties. That will provide some predictability to US businesses, she said, who have told her they consider China increasingly “uninvestible” due to rising risks.
For all those trips, Raimondo was the one China really wanted to see. As commerce secretary, she oversees the export controls that have throttled Chinese companies like Huawei Technologies Co. At the same time, a positive signal from Raimondo could spur the investment China needs to revive its slowing economy and reverse a 25-year-low in foreign direct investment.
Even so, the visit underscored just how hard it will be for Biden to bring ties with China back to any semblance of normalcy. Beijing gave no indication it would revisit a partial ban on Micron Technology Inc., and Raimondo rebuffed a Chinese request to lift tariffs, the recent order limiting some investment and export controls limiting the flow of sensitive technology.
To underscore that point, Raimondo toured Disneyland Shanghai, where the speakers were blaring the song A Whole New World from the movie Aladdin upon her arrival. It was a stop designed to highlight the kind of US investment that can still thrive, and to demonstrate the popularity of American culture even as tensions have soared.