Gina Raimondo, the secretary of commerce, started assembly Chinese officers on Monday as the most recent Biden administration emissary searching for to stabilize ties between the world’s two largest economies. In working towards that purpose, she has lots of floor to cowl.

During conferences with authorities officers and enterprise leaders in Beijing and Shanghai this week, Ms. Raimondo is predicted to sort out a variety of difficult points within the U.S.-China relationship, from explaining the controls the United States is rolling out on China’s entry to superior chips and different expertise, to selling ties in much less delicate areas.

Ms. Raimondo is prone to announce the creation of teams with China to debate expertise and enterprise points, and to cap her go to with a visit to Shanghai Disneyland to focus on the potential for extra tourism between the nations, in response to individuals accustomed to the plans.

In a gathering with China’s minister of commerce in Beijing on Monday morning, Ms. Raimondo mentioned that it was “profoundly important” for the 2 nations to handle their variations.

“It’s a challenging relationship, we will of course disagree on certain issues, but I believe we can make progress if we are direct, open and practical,” Ms. Raimondo mentioned.

The conferences are coming at a vital juncture, the place relations between the nations are strained and China’s economic system seems to be slowing. Here’s a have a look at the problems which might be anticipated to dominate the journey.

U.S.-China tech struggle

One main subject for each side would be the mounting restrictions on commerce in superior expertise between the nations, significantly these imposed by the United States. Ms. Raimondo’s department oversees the export controls that the Biden administration put in place on China’s entry to superior chips final October, which have angered Chinese officers and prompted retaliation.

Chinese officers are additionally upset concerning the Biden administration’s proposal earlier this month to bar private equity and venture capital firms from making investments in China in quantum computing and superior semiconductors, in addition to a brand new bipartisan regulation geared toward strengthening the U.S. semiconductor business, which bars firms that settle for federal cash from making new, high-tech investments in China.

China has had its personal, a lot broader limits since 2016 on most abroad investments by Chinese firms and households. Chinese officers additionally just lately scuttled a planned merger between Intel and an Israeli chip-maker, and banned some sales by the U.S. chip-maker Micron, which Micron has estimated may price the corporate roughly an eighth of its international income. The strikes in opposition to Micron and Intel had been seen by some China consultants as retaliation for the Biden administration’s harder therapy of China’s tech sector.

In an effort to forestall an economically damaging tit-for-tat, Ms. Raimondo is predicted to argue that the U.S. commerce restrictions are geared toward defending home safety, not holding China’s economic system again.

The two sides are additionally anticipated to announce the creation of a brand new working group throughout the go to to trade extra details about the controls. Some Republicans have pushed again on the concept of such a gaggle, arguing in a letter to Ms. Raimondo that it could give China a option to affect the measures.

In a briefing with reporters forward of the journey, Ms. Raimondo mentioned that enforcement of those guidelines is “not up for debate.” But communication with the Chinese authorities concerning the insurance policies might help keep away from misunderstanding and pointless escalation, she mentioned.

A deteriorating enterprise atmosphere for overseas companies

Ms. Raimondo can also be anticipated to air complaints from Western firms concerning the rising issue of doing enterprise in China. That possible contains elevating considerations about China’s therapy of Micron, and passing on complaints from different Western executives who say they’re more and more fearful about China’s expansive nationwide safety legal guidelines.

In March, the Chinese authorities detained five Chinese nationals working in Beijing for the Mintz Group, an American consulting firm, and in April, the authorities questioned employees within the Shanghai workplace of Bain & Company, the U.S. administration consulting agency. The Chinese authorities imposed a $1.5 million fine final month on Mintz for doing unapproved statistical work.

International executives now frequently categorical worries about finishing up routine enterprise actions in China, like performing due diligence on acquisition targets or transferring information between subsidiaries. American multinationals have begun making ready contingency plans in case their workers are detained in China, and have despatched again only a few of the expatriates who had evacuated the nation throughout the pandemic.

“People are scared to go to China,” mentioned Susan Shirk, a analysis professor on the twenty first Century China Center on the University of California, San Diego, and the creator of “Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise.”

“This worry about physical security is really putting a damper on interactions at the commercial as well as the academic level,” she added.

Promoting business ties in different areas

Despite a chillier environment, Ms. Raimondo and different officers insist that there’s nonetheless loads of potential for commerce between the world’s two largest economies. China stays America’s third-largest export market, shopping for greater than $150 billion of merchandise from U.S. farms and companies.

Speaking earlier than the journey, Ms. Raimondo famous that U.S. export controls have an effect on only one % of bilateral commerce between the nations. Exports to China assist greater than 80,000 jobs within the United States, and profit small in addition to massive companies, she mentioned. The United States additionally continues to import a whole bunch of billions of {dollars} of merchandise from China every year.

Ms. Raimondo is prone to reiterate that message as she meets enterprise leaders in Beijing and Shanghai. Her go to will embrace conferences with American purveyors of non-public care merchandise who’re exporting to China, and a visit to Shanghai Disneyland, the place she is prone to tout a current U.S. transfer to revive group journey from China to the United States.

“Like you, I’m a former governor, I’m a practical leader,” she instructed the Chinese commerce minister in her assembly Monday. “I’m here in the spirit of being practical and finding concrete ways to work together with you.”

Government communication

A extra primary, however nonetheless basic, element of the journey is selling communication between the United States and China. Those channels badly atrophied following the fallout over a Chinese surveillance balloon that flew throughout the United States early this yr.

Speaking earlier than the journey, Ms. Raimondo mentioned she had spoken to President Biden on Thursday, and that he had requested her to hold a message to Chinese leaders that “we need to communicate to avoid conflict.”

This would be the first journey to China by a U.S. commerce secretary in seven years.

She is predicted to fulfill a number of members of a new economic team that has taken workplace for the reason that Communist Party held its once-in-five-years nationwide congress final autumn.

Economic slowdown and transparency

Looming over the go to are considerations about China’s current financial slowdown, and the way that might affect the worldwide economic system and bilateral relations going ahead.

Economists and observers have expressed concern over a choice by the Chinese Bureau of National Statistics this month to stop publishing monthly unemployment information “for youth and other age groups,” which just lately reached a document excessive.

The company mentioned that it wanted to optimize its surveys. But the choice, along with the suspension of tens of 1000’s of different information collection in recent times, led to recommendations that China was attempting to cover unfavourable financial information.

Jake Sullivan, the White House’s nationwide safety adviser, mentioned that Ms. Raimondo was anticipated to debate China’s financial information throughout her journey.

“We think, for global confidence, predictability and the capacity of the rest of the world to make sound economic decisions, it’s important for China to maintain a level of transparency in the publication of its data as well,” he mentioned.