SHANGHAI — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday called on China to provide a level playing field for American businesses as he began a visit aimed at resolving a raft of contentious issues that could jeopardise the newly repaired relationship.
Blinken’s trip is the latest high-level contact between the two nations that, along with working groups on issues from global trade to military communication, have tempered the public acrimony that drove relations to historic lows early last year.
But Washington and Beijing have been increasingly at odds over how American companies operate in China, Chinese exports and manufacturing capacity, and strains are also growing over Beijing’s backing of Russia in its war in Ukraine.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that at a meeting with China’s top official in Shanghai, Chen Jining, Blinken raised concerns about China’s “trade policies and non-market economic practices.”
Blinken also “stressed that the United States seeks a healthy economic competition with the PRC and a level playing field for US workers and firms operating in China.”
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