The four-day visit that the US Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, ended yesterday in Beijing did not change the words of the bilateral conflict at all, but the music did, which returned to the tones of minimal cordiality after months of excessively high notes for the spy balloon incident and the off-key statements on both sides. The two powers continue to fight in the commercial field, and of course in the military, but now they return to boxing under the rules of the Marquess of Queensberry. They talk live again.
Yellen’s talks with Prime Minister Li Qiang and the three top managers of the Chinese economy were “direct, substantive and productive”, as she described them to the press at the end of the diplomatic journey. There were ten hours of meetings that served – she 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 overseer, culminated in an agreement to “strengthen communication and cooperation to address global challenges.” But the agency also highlighted Beijing’s objections to Washington’s emphasis on preserving US national security with trade restrictions. “The Chinese side expressed concern about the US sanctions and restrictions.” to the Asian country, Xinhua added.
In particular, the Chinese rulers showed Yellen their concern about the executive order that Joe Biden plans to sign to restrict US investments in the Asian giant, at least those that could somehow give it an advantage in strategic areas of technology, over everything in the military field. Yellen explained to his counterparts that any such measure would be limited in scope and would be enacted transparently, through a rule-making process that would allow for stakeholder participation.
The visit ended without tangible agreements to repair the damaged relations between the two nations, weighed down by the permanent tension around Taiwan and the control of the South China Sea, as well as by the mutual obstacles to the investments and exports of the other -particularly in the exchanges related to the chips – and, lately, by a possible support from Beijing to Moscow, even 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 of what she considers unfair and coercive practices by China regarding trade and investment. But he concluded that today the two powers are in “a more stable position” despite their significant disagreements. “We believe that the world is big enough for our two countries to prosper,” she said.
Yellen added that both governments would seek more frequent communication at the highest levels: a statement that points to a perhaps not-too-distant meeting between Biden and President Xi Jinping, following their November meeting at the G-20 summit in Indonesia. . The atmosphere of relative relaxation created in that face-to-face was ruined by the appearance of a Chinese hot air balloon in the US sky, a device that Biden and his team determined from the beginning to be a “spy balloon.”
The detection and subsequent demolition of the device forced the suspension of the visit that the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, planned to make to Beijing in February. The trip was postponed to June and it was a success. But the effect was short-lived: the next day Biden called Xi a “dictator” and the waters stirred again.
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 Xi’s friendly meeting with Vladimir Putin in March, he warned Xi to “be careful” of the consequences of her renewed ties with Moscow. “I told him: ‘This is not a threat but an observation, but since Russia entered the Ukraine, 600 American corporations have withdrawn from there. And you have told me that your economy depends on investment from Europe and the US. Be careful”.
With China, for now, one of lime and one of sand. The goal is not to break the rope. But both parties keep pulling.
