U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo argued that China is driving away American companies by making investments in the world’s second-biggest economy increasingly hazardous.
"Increasingly I hear from businesses, ‘China is uninvestable because it’s become too risky,’” Raimondo told reporters Tuesday aboard a high-speed train from Beijing to Shanghai. "There are the traditional concerns that they’ve become accustomed to dealing with. And then there’s a whole new set of concerns, the sum total of which is making China feel too risky for them to invest.”
The comments by Washington’s top trade promoter underscore that commerce has become one of the main strands of tension between the two powers, even as she and the Chinese officials she met with this week stressed that economic ties are key to sustaining a working relationship.