{"id":1118496,"date":"2023-07-05T03:22:29","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T03:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/china\/yellen-beijing-preview-07042023231701.html"},"modified":"2023-07-05T03:22:29","modified_gmt":"2023-07-05T03:22:29","slug":"in-a-high-stakes-standoff-its-time-to-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/07\/05\/in-a-high-stakes-standoff-its-time-to-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"In a high-stakes standoff, it\u2019s time to talk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to Beijing Thursday, making her the second cabinet-level official to visit China this year and signifying that China and the U.S. are talking again \u2013 or at least trying to.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yellen\u2019s trip will stress the importance for both countries \u201cto responsibly manage our relationship, communicate directly about areas of concern, and work together to address global challenges,\u201d the Treasury Department said in a statement on Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n

The relationship between China and the U.S. has been unraveling as the two countries spar over trade, technology transfers, Taiwan\u2019s status quo, human rights issues, China\u2019s professed support for Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine and general superpower rivalry.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the Biden administration considers additional restrictions of technology transfers by restricting the flow of chips used for artificial intelligence, Beijing has repeatedly indicated that it stands against all attempts to hold back its economic development.<\/span><\/p>\n

China, which has assumed an increasingly provocative military posture in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, has not ruled out taking Taiwan by military force.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Monday, <\/span>it<\/span> announced<\/span><\/a> restrictions on exporting gallium and germanium \u2013 metals that are crucial to the semiconductor, telecommunications and electric-vehicle industries \u2013 in an apparent tit-for-tat response to U.S. technology controls, but also probably in an effort to gain some leverage ahead of Yellen\u2019s visit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yellen undoubtedly wants to maintain a tough line while preserving the U.S.\u2019s commercial and investment links with China. Chinese officials, on other hand, are fighting an unprecedented \u2013 in recent times \u2013 economic slowdown on their home turf and are hopeful that they can preserve trade with the West while also appearing tough.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the costs<\/b><\/p>\n

In a recent <\/span>interview with MSNBC<\/span><\/a>, speaking of her upcoming visit to China, Yellen said, \u201cWhat I\u2019ve tried to make clear is that the United States is taking actions and will continue to take actions intended to protect our national security interests, and we\u2019ll do that even if it imposes some economic cost on us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She added that the U.S. believes that \u201ca healthy economic relationship, healthy competition benefits both American businesses and workers and Chinese businesses and workers. This is something that is possible and desirable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"2023-07-02T233347Z_810051365_RC2WSY9QJK2Y_RTRMADP_3_USA-CHINA-YELLEN.JPG\"\n
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen meets with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He for talks in Zurich, Switzerland, January, 18, 2023. Credit: Reuters\/Denis Balibouse\/File Photo<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Yellen will be in Beijing from Thursday through Sunday and will meet with senior Chinese officials and U.S. business people, but not Chinese president Xi Jinping, <\/span>said<\/span><\/a> a senior Treasury official on Sunday, providing the details of Yellen\u2019s trip on the condition of anonymity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yellen aims to build on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken\u2019s recent visit to Beijing, where <\/span>he met<\/span><\/a> President Xi, and tried to\u00a0 jumpstart communication on areas of shared interest, despite disagreements that are not easily resolved, the official said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The limited success of Blinken\u2019s trip was overshadowed by President Joe Biden\u2019s subsequent and apparently off-the cuff remark at a fundraiser that Xi is a \u201c<\/span>dictator<\/span><\/a>,\u201d a comment he refused to walk back, saying later it was \u201cjust not something I\u2019m going to change very much.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Tit for tat<\/b><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal <\/span>reported<\/span><\/a> that <\/span>Yellen has repeatedly called for multinational companies to shift supply chains outside of China, while Congress has created new subsidies motivating them to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n

China, in turn, apart from the latest restrictions on metals used in high technology, on Saturday implemented a<\/span> new foreign relations law<\/span><\/a> that theoretically gives it wide-ranging powers to act against anyone acquiring information that could possibly involve national security.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ambiguity of the law has led critics to say that having almost any information might be considered of security interest to Beijing.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Friday, <\/span>the U.S. State Department issued an <\/span>updated travel advisory<\/span><\/a> that said Americans should reconsider any travel to China due to \u201carbitrary enforcement of local law,\u201d \u201cexit bans\u201d and \u201cwrongful detentions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cU.S. citizens might only become aware of an exit ban when they attempt to depart the PRC, and there may be no available legal process to contest an exit ban,\u201d the travel advisory said, in a reference to the formal name of China, the People\u2019s Republic, adding that \u201crelatives, including minor children\u201d may also be prevented from leaving China.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cautious approach<\/b><\/p>\n

On this trip, Yellen \u2013 who has previously said that a complete decoupling of the U.S. and Chinese economies would be \u201cdisastrous\u201d \u2013 will be aiming to get to know her new counterpart, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, an economist who is mainly known as a longtime supporter of Xi.<\/span><\/p>\n

Providing a glimpse into her mindset ahead of the trip, Yellen said <\/span>in a <\/span>speech at Johns Hopkins University<\/span><\/a>\u2019s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, in April this year, that the U.S. needs to cooperate with China in key areas like debt overhang and climate change.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, we will secure our national security interests and those of our allies and partners, and we will protect human rights,\u201d Yellen said. \u201cWe will not hesitate to defend our vital interests. Even as our targeted actions may have economic impacts, they are motivated solely by our concerns about our security and values.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She added that the U.S. is not out to gain advantage \u201cor stifle China's economic and technological modernization,\u201d words that are unlikely to get much traction in Beijing but may be seen as a peace offering and the basis of a resumption of talks between the two powers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Edited by Mike Firn.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n \n \n


\r\nThis content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia<\/a> and was authored by Chris Taylor for RFA.
<\/p>\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Janet Yellen heads to Beijing in the US administration\u2019s second high-level attempt to open lines of communication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28337,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2242,42620,64494,42702,785,27149,27150,4540,42836,1048],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118496"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28337"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1118496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1118498,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118496\/revisions\/1118498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1118496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1118496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1118496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}