Analysis-Yellen's China trip yields long meetings, 'cordial' tone, but no consensus
By David Lawder
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen went to Beijing with no expectations that meetings with China's new top economic officials would immediately ease tensions between the world's two largest economies.
There was no breakthrough. And it's far from clear whether the 10 hours of meetings, covering issues ranging from U.S. technology export controls to China's new «anti-espionage» law and other punitive actions against U.S. firms, will do anything to change the relationship's trajectory.
But Yellen met her objective of opening communications with her new Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng, and explaining U.S. intentions on a broad range of policies.
«The accomplishment of the meeting was the meeting itself, not specific issues,» said Scott Kennedy, a China economics expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. «We're starting from a point in which the two sides have barely spoken to each other in three and a half years and the level of mistrust and cynicism has been layered on so thick.»
But he said it was significant that Yellen, He and other Chinese officials could hold civil, substantive discussions about policy differences after years of acrimony over the COVID-19 pandemic, tariffs, national security, trade restrictions and increasing difficulties for U.S. firms in China.
China's state-run Global Times newspaper described the tone of Yellen's visit as «pragmatic» and «rational,» but the «positive» expectations it generated are like «a candle in the wind, weak and uncertain.»
«People are more inclined to believe that Washington's policy direction toward China is still focused on containment and suppression, and there has been no change
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