Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng presented his credentials to President Joe Biden at the Oval Office on a humid summer afternoon in 2023. Less well-known is that following his presentation, Xie’s first official meeting was not at the State Department with his bureaucratic counterparts. Instead, it was down the block at the Department of Commerce with U.S. Deputy Secretary Don Graves, to discuss the broader strategic relationship between the two countries. Xie’s visit, which preceded Commerce