U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that 10 hours of talks with Chinese officials were “direct, substantive and productive” and will put the relationship between the two powers on “surer footing.”
“The U.S. and China have significant disagreements. Those disagreements need to be communicated clearly and directly,” Yellen said in prepared remarks. “But President [Joe] Biden and I do not see the relationship between the U.S. and China through the frame of great power conflict.”
That’s kind of weird because that’s exactly how China frames the conflict. Yellen can use all the weasel words she wants — “competition,” “rivalry,” “challenge” — but the bottom line is that China wants to supplant the U.S. as the number one power in the world, and they frame the conflict between the U.S. and China in cold war terms — even if the U.S. won’t.
“We believe that the world is big enough for both of our countries to thrive. Both nations have an obligation to responsibly manage this relationship: to find a way to live together and share in global prosperity,” she added.
That’s exactly what you’d expect the loser in this conflict to say.
Just days before Yellen’s visit, Beijing had slapped export curbs on chipmaking metals and its compounds — which China’s Ministry of Commerce claimed to have given the U.S. and Europe advance notice. In October, the U.S. launched sweeping rules aimed at cutting off exports of key chips and semiconductor tools to China.
Yellen said she “made clear that the United States is not seeking to decouple from China,” in her discussions with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Vice Premier He Lifeng and other senior officials.
There are few policy wonks on either side of the aisle who are advocating for a “decoupling” from China. That’s a strawman argument that Yellen needed to make to assure the Chinese that any actions we take won’t hurt the Chinese economy too much. This defeats the purpose of holding the threat of a chip embargo over their heads.
Yellen’s task in Beijing was a tricky one. While she expressed her worries on “a recent uptick in coercive actions against American firms,” she also sought to seek Chinese cooperation on issues ranging from debt distress in emerging markets and developing countries to climate change.
These are principles she laid out in an April speech where she stressed the importance of fairness in the U.S. economic competition with China.
Is there any evidence we’ve seen in the last decade that would indicate China’s desire to “play fair” with the U.S. on trade? It’s delusional to believe that, and it’s why Yellen and her boss need to be defeated in 2024. To think that China has ever been a reciprocal trade partner is absurd.
I’m sure the Mandarins in Beijing couldn’t believe their good luck when a doddering old fool was elected president and the advisors he chose were equally delusional and naive.
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