Prior to her meeting with He, Raimondo and Tourism Minister Hu Hepin agreed to hold the 14th China-US Tourism Leadership Summit in China in the first half of next year, a sign that improving people-to-people ties is important to putting a floor under the bilateral relationship.
The step aimed to revive and develop tourism co-operation between the two nations, the Commerce Department said. The last such summit was held in 2019 in Seattle.
Raimondo has made boosting travel and tourism a big part of her trip. China and the United States agreed this month to double the number of flights permitted between them, which are still only a fraction of the number before the pandemic.
If China returned to 2019 US tourism levels, that would add US$30 billion to the US economy and 50,000 US jobs, Raimondo said.
Raimondo plans a visit on Wednesday to Shanghai Disneyland, a joint venture of Walt Disney and Chinese state-owned Shendi Group.
US firms have reported growing challenges with operating in China, which has sharply criticised US efforts to block its access to advanced semiconductors.
The first meeting of an initiative to exchange information on export control enforcement was held on Tuesday at the commerce ministry in Beijing, led by Matthew Axelrod, US assistant secretary for export enforcement.
Such an exchange offered a platform to reduce misunderstandings of US national security policies, Raimondo said on Monday but she added that Washington would not compromise or negotiate on such matters.
Raimondo said on Monday she had raised concerns about curbs on chipmakers Intel and Micron in more than four hours of talks on economic and trade issues with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao on a range of US business issues.
China said the talks were a “rational, candid and constructive communication”.
Source: CNA
