Gina Raimondo's delicate dance in China
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Photo illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios. Photo: Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Gina Raimondo spent more than a decade in venture capital, before becoming Rhode Island's governor and then U.S. Commerce Secretary. This week she's in China, in part defending the Biden administration's ban on U.S. venture capital investment in certain Chinese tech sectors.
Why it matters: Raimondo must do a delicate dance in Beijing — maintaining hawkishness without clawing into a still-vital trade relationship.
- For all the new policies and talk about China being an "enemy" and "threat," the reality is that our two economies haven't decoupled.
- For example, trade between the two countries hit an all-time high last year.
- That means China's economic softening could create at least short-term pain for many U.S. companies, both publicly traded and privately held, even if it eventually strengthens America's global competitiveness.
The big picture: Raimondo is the fourth Biden cabinet official to visit China in recent months, although there hasn't been reciprocation in terms of top Chinese officials visiting D.C.
Behind the scenes: There's no indication that Raimondo has authority to negotiate on the outbound investment rule, nor on recent chip export controls, saying at the start of her visit: "In matters of national security, there is no room to compromise."
- But Raimondo and her Chinese counterpart did agree to an "information exchange" and to set up a "working group" on trade and investment that would include private sector representation.
- One issue that hasn't come up is TikTok, according to The Information's Jessica Lessin.
The bottom line: Many of Raimondo's former VC colleagues may be ramping down their activities in China, but her job only looks to get busier.
- Go deeper: Raimondo courts Gen Z for semiconductor jobs
