new york
CNN
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A team of five U.S. Treasury officials is in Beijing this week for a series of economic meetings with Chinese officials, a Treasury official told CNN on Monday.
The high-level visit comes ahead of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s scheduled return to China in late 2024.
The high-level U.S. delegation will be led by Jay Shambaugh, Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs.
U.S. officials plan to have a frank discussion about China’s trade strategy. The trade strategy is a thorny topic that has united many in Washington, with former President Donald Trump vowing to aggressively attack it with huge tariffs. Specifically, the official said the Treasury delegation plans to leverage China’s non-market economic practices and increase excess industrial capacity.
Yellen has in the past accused China of “unfair” practices, including erecting barriers for foreign companies to enter coveted markets and taking “coercive actions” against American companies.
The Treasury Department also plans to have frank discussions on economic trends, including risks to the global economy and fiscal and central bank policies.
The visit marks the first time the Economic Working Group has met in Beijing since it was established last September after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited China.
The meeting was held at a sensitive time, with China’s financial markets experiencing the most severe turmoil in years amid concerns about a slowdown in China’s economy. The Shanghai Composite stock price fell 6% last week, its worst level since October 2018, and countless social media users posted angry comments on the Beijing-based US embassy’s Weibo account. Last week, a Hong Kong court ordered Evergrande, the world’s most indebted property developer, to go into liquidation.
But there is nothing to suggest that the latest U.S.-China talks will directly address new concerns about China’s economy and financial markets. This is the third meeting of the Economic Working Group, which was expected to be held regularly.
News of the China visit was previously reported by the New York Times.
Yellen has made repairing U.S.-China relations a central part of her portfolio. In December, Yellen detailed a plan to build on the warming relationship between the world’s two largest economies. Improve communication, encourage greater transparency from the Chinese government, strengthen cooperation with regulators, and tackle issues such as terrorist financing and fentanyl leaks.
“But for too long, American workers and businesses have not been able to compete on a level playing field with Chinese workers and businesses,” Yellen said in a speech at the U.S.-China Business Council’s 50th anniversary dinner. mentioned in. “China deploys unfair economic practices, from non-market tools to barriers to access to foreign companies to coercive actions against American companies. These policies harm American workers and businesses. I’ll give it to you.”
In an interview on “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged the “challenges” facing China’s economy, including the real estate market. But Powell said these issues may not have a major direct impact on the United States.
“Unless what’s happening in China causes significant disruption to the economy or the financial system, the impact on the United States may be felt a little bit, but it shouldn’t be,” Powell said. big. ”