Beijing will welcome the American semiconductor company expanding its market share in China, the Chinese minister of commerce informed the president of Micron Technology Inc., signalling a further warming of ties between the two largest economies in the world.

According to a brief statement posted on the commerce ministry’s website on Friday, Commerce Minister Wang Wentao assured Sanjay Mehrotra, President and CEO of Micron Technology, during a meeting on November 1 that China would maximise the environment for foreign investment and offer service guarantees for foreign businesses.

“We welcome Micron Technology to continue to take root in the Chinese market and achieve better development under the premise of complying with Chinese laws and regulations,” Wang added.

The rapprochement transpires in the aftermath of Micron’s failure to pass a network security review, as reported by China’s cyberspace regulator, which also prohibited Chinese operators of critical infrastructure from purchasing memory chips from the U.S. manufacturer.

Many saw China’s action against Micron as payback for Washington’s attempts to deny Beijing access to important technologies. It happened just one day after the wealthy countries of the Group of Seven (G7) decided to “de-risk, not decouple” from China, and as Washington put pressure on its allies to follow suit in limiting the shipment of chip equipment to China.

Wang and Mehrotra’s meeting coincides with a recent defusing of tensions between Beijing and Washington as representatives from both nations try to set up a meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco later this month.

(Adapted from Reuters.com)