Treasury Secretary to visit China to mitigate Sino-American tensions

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
3 Jul 2023 09:07

The Treasury Department announces that the Secretary will be meeting with her Chinese counterparts to communicate directly about areas of concern.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen addresses an Atlantic Council Front Page event on April 13, 2022, in Washington, DC (AFP)

It was reported on Sunday that the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is scheduled to travel to Beijing later this week on a 3-day visit (July 6-9) to discuss with her counterparts the status of Chinese-American ties after they had deteriorated earlier this year over several incidents.

In a statement, the Treasury Department said the objective of the relationship is "to responsibly manage our relationship [Sino-American relations], communicate directly about areas of concern, and work together to address global challenges."

Yellen will be meeting with senior Chinese officials and leading US firms. She will be discussing with her Chinese counterparts how Washington views its economic relationship with China, a Treasury Department spokesperson announced.

The official noted that while the US aims to safeguard its national security interests and "uphold human rights," such efforts are "not intended to gain an economic advantage over China."

Along with pursuing collaboration on pressing issues like climate change and debt crises, Washington also aspires for "healthy" ties with Beijing and does not intend to decouple the economies, the US official claimed.

The Treasury official continued, The United States does not expect a "major breakthrough" from this initial trip, but it does hope to establish longer-term channels of communication with China.

In an interview for AFP, Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, frames Yellen's trip to Beijing in the overall context of American-Chinese bilateralism.

"I think the US government is clearly trying to put some floor under the deterioration of the economic relationship," Alden said, speaking on the Treasury Secretary's intentions to visit China.

"[The trip will] restart a steady pattern of engagement at lower levels," he added.

This means "focusing on a narrower range of items that have strategic importance, trying to build fences around those items, but otherwise trying to continue to nurture a reasonably robust US-China economic relationship," Alden said.

Back in June, Blinken went on an official visit to Beijing, marking his first visit to the country as Secretary of State and the first of an official in his position since 2018.

The visit was planned for February, but it had to be postponed after tensions with China forced Washington to suspend its plans over allegations that China had sent a spy balloon over US airspace.

Blinken met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang who warned the US Secretary of State during their meeting that the Taiwan issue is "the core of China's core interests."