Yellen’s tough message to China on exports tests fragile detente
livemint.comBEIJING—When Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met her Chinese counterpart in Switzerland early last year, she tiptoed around controversial issues, only raising trade disagreements during a brief, one-on-one coffee break with Liu He, then China’s vice premier, according to people familiar with the meeting. In China over the past few days, Yellen wasn’t so shy. She hammered Chinese officials for exporting too many clean-energy goods, warning regional officials, as well as Vice Premier He Lifeng and Premier Li Qiang, to scale back industrial production.
“This is a very important concern of ours. I think my job here is to make sure I’ve explained this very thoroughly and presented this concern at the highest levels of Chinese leadership," Yellen said at a press conference Monday, at the end of her trip. “I do not want to see the U.S.
economic relationship or overall relationship with China deteriorate or fray." The pointed message—delivered in Beijing and in Guangzhou, a metropolis in China’s industrial south—will test a delicate detente between the U.S. and China. President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have spent more than a year seeking to re-establish a modicum of trust between the world’s two largest economies and prevent a spiral into deeper hostilities.
Now, the U.S. is expending some of that goodwill on addressing a growing irritant in Washington: trade. The Biden administration fears that a wave of Chinese goods could overwhelm American industry, leading to job losses and business closures in a repeat of the China shock, when Chinese exports disrupted global markets at the start of the 21st century.
Read more on livemint.com
