WASHINGTON: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will meet with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in San Francisco this week to try to deepen a fledgling economic dialogue between the world’s two largest economies ahead of a US-hosted summit of Pacific Rim leaders.
The Treasury said the Nov 9-10 meetings will also convene the new economic and financial forums launched in October by the Treasury and China’s finance ministry and central bank.
Yellen first met with He, China’s new economic czar, in July, when she visited Beijing to try to stabilise a deteriorating US-China relationship amid growing US restrictions on sensitive technologies.
The San Francisco meetings will take place just before the Biden administration hosts ministers and leaders of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation countries from Nov 11-17 – a gathering during which US President Joe Biden is aiming to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
A senior US Treasury official downplayed the idea that there would be specific “deliverables” from the Yellen-He meetings, saying it was not a “policy trade” situation “where we trade one thing for another”.
But the official said a key aim for Yellen was gaining a better understanding of how the new US-China economic communication line will work, and how to make sure that “it is not vulnerable to shocks,” adding that there will be more frequent interactions.
Yellen also is keen to discuss what steps Chinese officials are contemplating to support their flagging economic growth, and what circumstances might change their policy path.
“NON-MARKET” TOOLS
Amid growing concerns that China will try to dump more manufactured goods on US and global markets, Yellen is expected to warn He against using massive industrial subsidies to state firms and shutting US companies out of domestic markets, the official said.
Source: CNA
