US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s visit to China directed to stabilize the strained ties between the world’s two largest economies, It concluded this Sunday and ended with high-level meetings to improve communication between the two countries, especially in the economic area.
In his four days in the Chinese capital, Yellen met with the main economic policy makers of the Asian country, including the Prime Minister, Li Qiang; the new head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the People’s Bank, Pan Gongsheng; Finance Minister Liu Kun or Vice Premier He Lifeng.
In all the interactions, qualified by both as “frank and productive”, both sides emphasized the need to “avoid misunderstandings” and try to put their battered relationship on track, with which they were summoned to continue maintaining “dialogue and exchanges”, although both Yellen and the Chinese officials acknowledged that there are broad disagreements.
The Chinese side, for example, bluntly expressed its concerns “over US sanctions and its restrictive measures against China”, while Yellen criticized Beijing’s “unfair practices”, citing, among other things, “existing barriers to accessing its markets”, and clarified that Washington will continue to take “specific measures for reasons of national security”.
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The restrictions that the US imposed last year on the export of semiconductors were planned at the negotiating table and American-made materials, a measure called to limit Beijing’s ability to manufacture parts necessary for the operation of supercomputers or advanced military systems.
Restrictions to which others could be added to exports of artificial intelligence chips to China, according to the US press, to which Beijing responded this week with limitations on the export of gallium and germanium, two key metals for the manufacture of semiconductors, a product which is at the center of commercial and technological tensions between the two.
“Abusing the concept of national security is something that only succeeds in damaging economic and commercial exchanges,” accused the Chinese state agency Xinhua after the meeting on Saturday between Yellen and He, evidencing the disagreements.
The Secretary of the Treasury, for her part, also brought to the fore the latest “punitive measures against American firms”, in reference to the investigations launched in China against various American consultancies or the ban on the American technology company Micron from selling products to Chinese customers. .
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What left the visit?
The visit furthered US President Joe Biden’s agenda of deepening relations with China while reaffirming Washington’s positions.
Although it did not yield specific agreements, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Saturday night that Yellen’s meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng led to an agreement to “strengthen communication and cooperation in addressing global challenges.” He added that the two sides agreed to continue the exchanges.
After completing your visit, Yellen said on Sunday that her talks with the Chinese authorities put bilateral relations on “more solid foundations.” “We believe that the world is big enough for our two countries to prosper,” he told reporters on Sunday at the US embassy in Beijing.
“The two countries have an obligation to responsibly manage this relationship, find a way to live together and share global prosperity,” he added.
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The Chinese press, however, stresses this Sunday that “it is the United States that must work with China” so that relations return “to the right path”, although they acknowledge that US officials are making “efforts” to improve contacts.
“It is a positive sign for the world, which urgently needs the two great global economic powers to talk and cooperate in the face of ever greater challenges. But it is necessary for Washington to be true to its words,” the official Global Times newspaper commented in this regard. an editorial.
According to academic Gao Lingyun of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the economic relations between the two “served for a long time as a stabilizing factor”, but the problem now is that the two powers compete at the same time that they show their dependence, which makes it so difficult to reach “meaningful” agreements.
Yellen herself acknowledged that the US “does not seek to economically disengage from China” because that would be “disastrous” and “destabilizing” for both: “Seeing the two parties sitting at the table is good in itself,” says the expert .
And while Yellen asked to compete but “under some rules”, Vice Premier He confessed that the Chinese side regrets the “unexpected incidents that damaged ties in recent months”, in apparent reference to the episode of the alleged Chinese “spy” balloon that flew over United States in late January and fell into Atlantic waters on February 4.
That episode seemed to destroy the rapprochement between the presidents of both countries, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, during their meeting in November 2022 on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali.
Seeing both parties sitting at the table is good in itself
Yellen’s visit followed the one carried out in June by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who also emphasized “the importance of keeping communication channels open in all areas to reduce the risk of miscalculation” in an attempt to reduce tension between the two powers and prevent competition from leading to open conflict.
In general, according to analysts, Yellen’s visit seems “more enthusiastic” than the one Blinken recently paid. Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, said that “the Chinese view Yellen as a professional, and her attitude toward China-US economic and trade relations is relatively rational.”
Taylor Fravel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology told AFP: “I don’t think a single visit can achieve the goal of stabilizing relations.”
But Yellen’s visit and remarks express support for continued US-China cooperation “despite political friction in the relationship and competitive actions to limit China’s access to certain technologies, such as semiconductors,” he added.
“The two sides haven’t had this level of communication and consultation in many years,” said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington.
*With EFE
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