'China, US should work together on key issues'
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo met with Premier Li Qiang on Tuesday, calling for Beijing and Washington to work together to solve issues of global concern. Raimondo's trip to China is the latest by a senior US official in recent months as Washington seeks to defuse tensions with the world's second-largest economy. On Tuesday, she held another round of talks with Chinese officials, meeting Li to stress the importance of open communication between the two powers. Pointing to areas of "global concern" like climate change, artificial intelligence and fentanyl addiction, she told the premier that Washington wants to "work with you as two global powers to do what is right for all of humanity". "The world is expecting us to step up together to solve these problems," she said. Raimondo also reiterated the US position that it is not seeking to decouple its economy from China's. "We seek to maintain our US$700 billion commercial relationship with China, and we hope that that relationship can provide stability for the overall relationship," she said. Earlier on Tuesday, Raimondo met Vice Premier He Lifeng, describing the US-China commercial relationship as "one of the most consequential" in the world. "Managing that relationship responsibly is critical to both of our nations and indeed to the whole world," she said during a part of the meeting open to journalists. She stressed the US would "never compromise in protecting our national security", but added that Washington did not seek "to hold China's economy back". He, in response, said Beijing was willing to work on "new, positive efforts to keep economic consensus and step up cooperation". Raimondo heads to Shanghai later on Tuesday and will leave the country on Wednesday. The US commerce secretary is one of a number of senior officials to visit China in recent months, part of an effort by Washington to improve its working relationship with its largest strategic rival. On Monday she met with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, with the two sides agreeing to set up a working group to iron out the laundry list of trade disputes between them. They also agreed to set up what Washington called an "export control enforcement information exchange", described as a platform to "reduce misunderstanding of US national security policies". (AFP)