Commerce chief to attend China’s Seattle tech forum

Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker will speak Wednesday at a Chinese-organized technology forum in Seattle.

The event, part of a West Coast swing for Chinese President Xi Jinping before his first official state visit in Washington, is expected to draw top executives from Apple, Facebook, Google, Uber and other major Silicon Valley players.

{mosads}Deputy Commerce Secretary Bruce Andrews will also serve as a panelist that day at the U.S. China Internet Industry Forum, which Microsoft is co-hosting with the Internet Society of China, a semi-governmental organization that works with tech firms in China to regulate the Internet.

Many were surprised when news of China’s tech forum leaked in early September. Reportedly, the Obama administration was irked by the revelation because U.S. officials had not been part of the planning.

The meeting was also seen by many as an attempt to show the Obama administration that American private sector leaders are willing to cooperate with Beijing despite its restrictions on foreign firms.

U.S. and Chinese officials have been butting heads in recent months over a series of laws that President Obama has publicly disavowed as unfair to foreign firms and unproductive to Chinese trade relations.

“It’s a show of strength,” said Jerome Cohen, co-director of New York University School of Law’s U.S.-Asia Law Institute, in a conference call Monday.

The inclusion of two top-ranking U.S. officials at Xi’s West Coast stops may help defuse the narrative of frustration over the Seattle forum.

In addition to speaking at the forum, Pritzker will give remarks Tuesday night at a gala dinner in Xi’s honor organized by several U.S. business groups.

The U.S.-China relationship has been strained recently over allegations of widespread cyberattacks on the U.S. government and private sector, territorial disputes in the South China Sea and China’s decision to devalue its currency.

But the two countries remain economically interlinked, giving both sides little reason to leave the negotiating table.

According to the Commerce Department, U.S. investment in China last year topped $60 billion, and two-way trade surpassed $600 billion.