Against the backdrop of ongoing friction in Sino-US relations, the U.S. Treasury Secretary began his visit to China on April 4 and will return to the United States on April 9.
During the talks with senior Chinese officials, Yellen said that China and the United States, as the world's two largest economies, have a responsibility and need to manage the bilateral relationship and play an active leadership role in global affairs. In addition, Yellen believes that more needs to be done by the United States and China, because while the relationship between China and the United States has made some progress in the past year in the context of the San Francisco Vision, both sides need to make the relationship more stable.
Yellen's remarks are actually a positive significance, after all, stabilizing China-US relations is in the interests of China and the United States, as well as the interests of the world. In addition, during Yellen's visit to China, in addition to reiterating the three-point consensus reached at the San Francisco talks in November, the two sides also reached two new consensus outcomes on economic and financial cooperation, and will work together to promote the transformation of this consensus into practical results.
Yellen
Despite this, there are still clear differences between China and the United States in the field of new energy, which have not been eased by this visit, which is the core purpose of Yellen's visit.
Before Yellen's visit to China, Yellen said that the wages of Chinese workers are low, the cost of China's manufacturing industry is low, and China's industrial products are sold cheaply, which means that the price of China's industrial products is too low, making it difficult for the American manufacturing industry to compete with China, so China needs to raise production costs and increase product prices to ensure that American manufacturing companies have the so-called "level playing field".
Yellen also mentioned this core aspect at the press conference at the end of her visit to China, saying that the United States will not accept the destruction of new industries by cheap Chinese products as the American steel field did 10 years ago. This shows that Yellen has not achieved the desired results on the core issues that the US government is concerned about. But Yellen also stressed that the United States does not seek to "decouple" from China because of the disastrous consequences, and it can be seen that the United States will not take drastic measures even if there is no broad consensus.
China and the United States
In fact, this point was doomed before Yellen's visit to China to achieve substantive results. On April 3, China's Ministry of Finance issued an announcement stating that U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen would visit China as agreed by both sides. Note that it was an "agreement between China and the United States", which is exactly the same as the wording used before Yellen's visit to China last year. The phrase "mutually agreed" also means that Yellen's visit to China was initiated by the US side. Last year's trip to China was lackluster, and this year is largely the same.
Moreover, the core purpose of Yellen's trip is to curb the development of China's manufacturing industry. Before Yellen left, she said that China has had a serious impact on American companies in three areas, one is new energy electric vehicles, one is photovoltaic products, and then lithium batteries. Yellen's visit to China is to discuss reducing China's new energy industry exports to the United States, and to find a way for American new energy companies to survive, so that the United States can catch up with China in this field as soon as possible. But this move is tantamount to tying our hands and feet, so it is naturally difficult for Yellen's visit to China to achieve its goal.
Moreover, Yellen is visiting China, while the United States is constantly moving. For example, on April 3, the United States announced the deployment of new missile launchers in the Asia-Pacific region for launching Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of 1,600 kilometers and new interceptor missiles.
The United States and the Philippines
In addition, on April 7, the United States, Japan, Australia and the Philippines held joint military exercises in the South China Sea, apparently to support the Philippines. On April 11, the United States, Japan and the Philippines will hold a summit in Washington, and the South China Sea issue will be a key issue.
In terms of trade, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai has publicly stated that China's economic growth has caused damage to Western countries, so she advocates that the United States and the European Union take joint measures to sanction and suppress China.
In other words, in the context of the comprehensive containment of China by the United States in many aspects and fields, Yellen's urgent visit to China is to make China give up the advantages it has gained in the new energy manufacturing industry and cede part of the market that has been beaten down to American companies, which is really whimsical.
Of course, although Yellen's visit to China has been lackluster, except for two new consensuses, it cannot be said that Yellen's visit to China is meaningless, at least judging from the statements of the Chinese official media, we say that China and the United States are partners rather than rivals, the two countries have strengthened communication, and jointly managed differences, etc., which shows that Yellen's visit to China still has a positive effect on easing relations between China and the United States. Two days before Yellen's visit to China, China and the United States also held a naval and air dialogue, and the core topic was to reduce friction.
From this perspective, the high-level dialogue between the Chinese and US governments and the military means that Sino-US relations will be further eased in the future, which is conducive to the easing of regional and even global tensions, and has certain benefits for global economic development. However, we must also note that this kind of détente will only prevent the two sides from moving towards complete confrontation and direct confrontation or a hot war; as long as the US strategy toward China does not change, the US encirclement, pursuit, and interception of China in the economic, scientific, and technological fields will only intensify, not lessen.