Not long after Yellen walked on the front foot, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that she was going to visit China in a relay manner. According to domestic and foreign media reports, Blinken will pay a four-day visit to China on April 23. The key topics he is expected to discuss with Chinese officials will be the situation in Ukraine and the South China Sea, and the US side has not disclosed too many details about whether he will talk about economic issues.
It is worth mentioning that during Yellen's visit to China, she expressed so-called concerns about China's industrial overcapacity, which obviously cast a shadow on Blinken's trip. What is even more puzzling is that before Blinken is about to leave, Biden also intends to "shoot arrows with a bow" and put frontal pressure on China.
According to U.S. media, Biden urged a twofold increase in tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum on Wednesday (17th) local time on the grounds of "unfair competition", and his purpose was to win the support of steelworkers in Pennsylvania, a swing state. Such logic is undoubtedly absurd, the election battle between Biden and Trump is an internal political affair of the United States, but it is too far-fetched to have to associate votes with China. According to the United States, they believe that China's policies and subsidies for domestic steel and other industries will lead to artificially low prices for high-quality American products.
On the same day, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative also announced that it would launch a Section 301 investigation against China's maritime, logistics and shipbuilding industries. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai has previously claimed that the Biden administration is "seriously considering" various U.S. trade defense tools, including new tariff actions, in response to the "threat" posed by China's trade and economic policies.
There is no doubt that when taken together, both the so-called election factor and the concern of "overcapacity" are nothing more than rhetoric for the United States to exercise hegemony. Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which authorizes the USTR to initiate an investigation into "unreasonable or unfair trade practices" of other countries, and can recommend unilateral sanctions to the President of the United States after the investigation is concluded, has long been one of the "tools of containing China" in US political circles. Biden has largely followed this strategy since former U.S. President Donald Trump imposed punitive tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese imports in 2018.
Naturally, China will not sit idly by and ignore the arrogant performance of the United States. A spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce quickly responded that the US application is "full of false accusations", misinterpreting normal trade and investment activities as harming US national security and corporate interests, and blaming China for its own industrial problems, which is not only unsubstantiated but also contrary to economic common sense. He also stressed that the United States launched a new Section 301 investigation out of domestic political needs, which is "wrong again and again". On the surface, we responded and seemed to take it seriously. But the reality is the opposite, we don't panic at all. Why?
First of all, the Biden administration knows very well that the United States cannot do without China at all. China and the United States are the world's two largest economies, and the complete falling out between the United States and us is not beneficial to the United States in all fields, which is why Blinken is coming non-stop as soon as Yellen returns home. Secondly, with the continuous emergence of the spillover effect of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, it is difficult for the United States to play its due role alone, they support Israel, but this is based on the premise that the interests of the United States are not damaged, if the conflict between Iran and Israel becomes more intense, the United States will inevitably be affected, coupled with the Red Sea direction, the Houthis continue to strike, the United States will face huge external pressure, at this time if Biden chooses to make enemies with China, it is not wise to look at it.
Therefore, before Blinken's visit to China next week, the United States made a gesture of "shooting arrows with a bow" in order to give Blinken some bargaining chips with China, and this is not the first time that the Biden administration has done such a thing. But the more this happens, it just confirms the recession and panic in the United States today, after all, there are not many "cards" they can play.