Opening two days of talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen hopes to minimise the economic damage from a strained relationship by maintaining open lines of communication on issues ranging from climate change to national security.
U.S. Treasury officials have made an effort to temper expectations for any significant outcomes from the discussions in San Francisco, where Chinese President Xi Jinping and other leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation will be attending a conference hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden next week.
With a scheduled encounter on the fringes of the conference, Biden and Xi are predicted to steal the show during APEC. Yellen’s second in-person meeting with He since her July visit to Beijing is one of many cabinet-level gatherings that are partially intended to
Opening two days of talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen hopes to minimise the economic damage from a strained relationship by maintaining open lines of communication on issues ranging from climate change to national security.
U.S. Treasury officials have made an effort to temper expectations for any significant outcomes from the discussions in San Francisco, where Chinese President Xi Jinping and other leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation will be attending a conference hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden next week.
With a scheduled encounter on the fringes of the conference, Biden and Xi are predicted to steal the show during APEC.
Yellen plans to restate her belief that the United States and China should pursue a “healthy competition” built on fair play and open communication about their goals on limitations on national security rather than trying to decouple.
The Biden administration, she declared last week, would not pursue a course of disengagement that would compel Asian countries to pick between China and the United States.
After the bodies were established in October, the San Francisco sessions will be the first in-person meetings of the newly formed U.S.-China economic and financial forums featuring staff-level officials from both countries.
However, Yellen clarified when she announced the discussions that they would not be a replication of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue, a broad U.S.-China forum that was heavily criticised for its lack of results under the Obama administration.
One of the main objectives of the conference, according to a U.S. Treasury official, was to improve understanding of the relationship, strengthen interactions with China, and prevent miscommunications over U.S. policy choices.
Although Yellen’s reengagement with China is crucial, Kelly Ann Shaw, a former White House trade assistant to former President Donald Trump, predicted that the meeting would not significantly alter the general course of U.S.-China relations.
“There is a fundamental break in this connection. And I believe that will continue for the foreseeable future,” said Shaw, a partner at the legal firm Hogan Lovells.
“Knowing that, it’s about determining how we want this partnership to appear. Furthermore, if your interests coincide, you can still get along even if you don’t like each other.”
In a Monday opinion post that appeared in the Washington Post, Yellen stated that there were global issues including climate change, debt relief for developing nations, and stopping money laundering that goes towards funding terrorism and illegal substances that might be areas of possible collaboration between the United States and China.
She did, however, add that the United States would object to Chinese state subsidies and other economic measures.
“This week, I will speak to my counterpart about our serious concerns with Beijing’s unfair economic practises, including its large-scale use of non-market tools, its barriers to market access, and its coercive actions against U.S. firms in China,” said Yellen in a letter.