The four-day visit that the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, Janet Yellen, ended yesterday in Beijing did not change the letter of the bilateral conflict at all, but it did change the music, which returned to tones of minimal cordiality after of months of too high marks for the spy balloon incident and the out-of-tune statements on both sides. The two powers keep fighting in the commercial field, and certainly in the military, but now they are boxing again under the rules of the Marquis of Queensberry. They talk live again.
The talks with Prime Minister Li Qiang and the three top Chinese economic leaders were “direct, substantive and productive”, as Yellen described them to the press at the end of the diplomatic tour. It was ten hours of meetings that served – he added – “as a step forward in our effort to place the relationship with China on a more secure basis”.
China’s state news agency Xinhua noted that Yellen’s meeting with Vice Premier He Lifeng, the government’s top economic management supervisor, culminated in an agreement to “strengthen communication and cooperation to address global challenges.” “. But the agency also underscored Beijing’s objections to Washington’s emphasis on preserving U.S. national security with trade restrictions. “The Chinese side expressed concern over US sanctions and restrictions” on the Asian country, Xinhua added.
In particular, Chinese rulers showed Yellen their concern over the executive order that Joe Biden plans to sign to restrict US investments in the Asian giant, at least those that could somehow provide it with an advantage. in strategic areas of technology, especially in the military field. Yellen explained to counterparts that any such measure would be limited in scope and would be enacted transparently, through a rulemaking process that would allow for stakeholder participation.
The visit ended without tangible agreements to repair the damaged relations between the two nations, burdened by ongoing tension over Taiwan and control of the South China Sea, as well as by mutual restrictions on investments and exports from the another – particularly in the exchanges related to chips – and, lately, for a possible support from Beijing to Moscow, at least indirectly, regarding the invasion of Ukraine.
After the marathon of meetings, not only on economic issues, but also on national security and climate change, Yellen reiterated the rejection of the Joe Biden Administration towards trade and investment practices that it considers unfair and coercive by part of china But he concluded that today the two powers are in “a more stable position” despite significant disagreements. “We believe that the world is big enough for both countries to prosper,” he said.
Yellen added that the two governments could seek more frequent communication at the highest levels — a statement that points toward a new, perhaps not-distant, meeting of Biden with President Xi Jinping, following their November meeting in the G-20 summit in Indonesia. The atmosphere of some tension created in that face-to-face was ruined by the appearance of a Chinese balloon in the sky of the USA, which Biden and his team described from the beginning as a “spy balloon”.
The detection and subsequent destruction of the artifact forced the suspension of the visit that the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, had planned to make to Beijing during those February days. The trip was postponed to June and then it was a success. But the effect was short-lived, since the next day Biden called Xi a “dictator” and the waters were once again regulated.
In an interview with CNN, the US president remarked that “there is a way to establish a working relationship with China that benefits them and us.” But he also recalled that, after the friendly meeting that Xi held with Vladimir Putin in March, he warned the Chinese leader to be “careful” about the consequences of his renewed ties with Moscow. “I told him, ‘This isn’t a threat, it’s an observation, but since Russia entered Ukraine, 600 US corporations have pulled out. And you told me that your economy depends on investment from Europe and the United States. Be careful.”
With China, at the moment, one cold and one hot. The goal is not to break the rope. But the two sides are still pulling.
