Huri-pung Likely to Meet with State Council Vice Premier and Others
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will visit China next month. This move is analyzed as reflecting the Biden administration's intention to manage U.S.-China relations stably ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.
On the 24th (local time), U.S. political media outlets Politico and Bloomberg News, citing U.S. government officials, reported that Secretary Yellen is scheduled to meet with high-level officials in China in April.
This visit marks Yellen's first trip to China in nine months since July last year. After the balloon reconnaissance incident in February of the same year rapidly worsened bilateral relations, the U.S. dispatched Secretary Yellen along with Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo to China to promote improvement in relations. In November, a U.S.-China summit was even held in Washington D.C., signaling a shift to a mode of managing bilateral relations.
Secretary Yellen is expected to meet with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, who is in charge of economic policy, and Minister of Finance Lan Foan. Politico suggested that Yellen’s previous remarks provide clues to the agenda of the U.S.-China treasury talks. In a speech last December, Yellen stated that high-level face-to-face meetings between the U.S. and China are essential for responsibly managing bilateral relations. She emphasized transparency in China’s foreign exchange transactions, joint U.S.-China management of potential global banking crises, and cooperation on anti-money laundering efforts.
This meeting is interpreted as an effort by President Joe Biden, who is seeking re-election in November, to stably manage the deteriorated U.S.-China relations caused by the Taiwan dispute and export controls on semiconductors and other technologies. The U.S. has emphasized that its China policy centers not on decoupling but on de-risking, with the core principle being a "Small Yard With High Fence," meaning separating where necessary and cooperating where possible. From China’s perspective, struggling to stimulate its economy, communication with the U.S. could blunt the edge of U.S. containment efforts.
Politico assessed, "The goal of the high-level face-to-face meeting is to maintain stable bilateral relations amid diplomatic rhetoric about the China threat that will be highlighted during the U.S. election campaign."
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