On August 29, Minister of Culture and Tourism Hu Heping met with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Raimondo, who was visiting China, at an appointment in Beijing.

Hu said President Xi Jinping attaches great importance to humanistic exchanges between China and the United States, emphasizing that the hope for China-U.S. relations lies in the people, the foundation lies in the people, and the future lies in the youth. The interaction between countries lies in the closeness between people, and China and the United States should encourage people to travel to each other's countries and engage in more exchanges to eliminate barriers and enhance understanding. Tourism has always been an important part of China-U.S. humanistic exchanges, playing an irreplaceable and unique role in increasing communication between the people of the two countries and building the public opinion foundation of bilateral relations. China and the United States are important tourist destinations and source countries for each other. China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism is willing to work with the U.S. Department of Commerce to implement the important consensus reached at the Bali meeting between President Xi Jinping and President Biden, strengthen humanistic exchanges, expand people-to-people exchanges, promote people-to-people communication between the two countries, and make more contributions to the healthy and stable development of China-U.S. relations. It is hoped that the U.S. side will move in the same direction as China, further increase the number of direct flights between the two countries, adjust travel reminders to China as soon as possible, facilitate the application of visas for Chinese nationals to visit the U.S., and stop unprovoked inspections and harassment of Chinese nationals and groups visiting the U.S., so as to create better conditions for the reciprocal visits of tourists from the two countries.

The two sides emphasized that humanistic exchanges are of great significance to the bilateral relations between China and the United States, and agreed to hold the 14th China-United States High-Level Dialogue on Tourism in China in the first half of 2024 to further revive and develop tourism cooperation between the two countries.