Washington Update

On Thursday, in a significant cabinet-level exchange between the United States and China, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao convened in Washington DC. According to readouts, the two had a candid dialogue regarding trade, investment, and export policies.

On Thursday, it was announced that China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao will meet with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in Washington and with US Trade Representative  Katherine Tai in Detroit next week. Many have been expecting Tai and Wentao to meet, as Detroit is hosting the trade ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) May 25 to 26.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan held eight hours of talks with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, over Wednesday and Thursday in Vienna in a step toward stabilizing relations. The previously undisclosed talks broke a period of relative silence between the two countries, following the Chinese surveillance balloon incident earlier this year.

On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), accompanied by 12 Democratic committee chairs, announced plans for a Senate legislative package focused on China. Schumer urged his committee chairs to work with their Republican counterparts to draft bipartisan legislation that can be combined into a larger bill modeled after the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which was passed last Congress.

In a speech Thursday, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan outlined the Biden administration’s new industrial strategy for the United States. The strategy aims to leverage massive public investment to rebuild US manufacturing, reduce inequality, and reduce supply chain dependence on China.

In a speech on Thursday at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen outlined a vision for the future of US-China economic relations, emphasizing the importance of collaboration while safeguarding US national security interests.

In a Brookings Institution discussion on Monday, Treasury Undersecretary for International Affairs Jay Shambaugh spoke about the importance of maintaining an economic relationship with China, a notable message considering the administration’s focus on competition and national security as of late.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen landed in New York Thursday, where she will be stopping briefly on her way to visit Central American allies. She plans to stop in Los Angeles on her way back to Taiwan next week. While little is known about Tsai’s itinerary while in the United States, the stopovers have drawn sharp criticism from Beijing, particularly, the prospect that she will meet with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) during the second leg of her trip.

On Thursday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing to question TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew on concerns that the app is too close to the CCP. The hearing comes on the heels of reports that after years of negotiations with TikTok’s parent company Bytedance, the Biden administration is demanding that ByteDance divest the app to a US owner or face a ban on operating in the United States.