After three hours of discussions and another working dinner on Friday April 5 in Guangzhou (China), the American Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, and the Vice Prime Minister in charge of the Chinese economy, He Lifeng, embarked for a brief cruise on the Pearl River. A way of showing that the first two powers, between which the subjects of contention accumulate, nevertheless manage to talk to each other. In this diplomatic exercise, the American secretary recalled that the visit in 1992 of former leader Deng Xiaoping to the same province of Guangdong had marked a turning point for the opening of China.
The more concrete issues were not put aside for very long. “Overcapacity is not a new problem, but it has intensifiedhad observed Mme Yellen, career economist, earlier today in front of the American business community. Our concern about overcapacity is not an anti-China policy, it is an effort to limit the risk of inevitable dislocation of the global economy if China does not adjust its policies. »
This is the second visit to China by the American Treasury Secretary, a sign of persistent commitment when others within the same administration, such as Trade Representative Katherine Tai, want to avoid showing off, going back and forth to China in a structurally deleterious bilateral context.
The American and Chinese governments are pleased to have at least managed to stabilize their communications in the wake of the San Francisco meeting between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, on November 15, 2023. A dialogue between the military of the two countries, suspended since The August 2022 visit to Taiwan by then-Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi resumed on Wednesday April 3.
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But, fundamentally, the subjects of discord are accumulating, and the economy, which previously was supposed to bring the two leading powers together and force them to cooperate, is now among the main contentious issues. Washington warns that Chinese state support for the new energy sector and the production of electric vehicles threatens American industry and is ready to do more to protect itself. The adoption of new taxes on solar panels cannot be ruled out; it is requested by several senators from both camps, Democratic and Republican.
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