The Washington Post-US China agree to forge new economic financial dialogues
September 22, 2023 4 min 811 words
这篇报道涵盖了美国财政部宣布建立两个新工作组，旨在探讨中美经济和金融问题的情况。这是一种鼓舞人心的迹象，表明在财政部长珍妮特·耶伦今年夏天访问北京之后，中美两国之间的沟通正在改善。这也标志着对中美之间经济冲突的几年来的缓解，这些冲突包括对制裁、贸易限制以及中美公司在国外的待遇等问题。 这些工作组将定期举行直接会议，进行关于经济和金融政策的坦诚而实质性的讨论，其中还包括宏观经济和金融发展的信息交流。美国方面将由财政部长耶伦主持高级会议，而中国方面将由副总理何立峰领导各自机构的工作。美国财政部官员将与中国财政部进行经济工作组的对话，而金融对话将由中国央行代表进行。 这些新对话是白宫为重新建立华盛顿与北京之间在一系列地缘政治、安全和经济问题上的沟通渠道所做的更广泛努力的一部分，这些努力是继去年巴厘岛举行的拜登总统与中国国家主席习近平之间的会谈之后。尽管存在一些敏感问题，如今年2月在美国大陆上空发现中国间谍气球以及旨在限制北京进入美国技术领域的美国贸易限制措施，但双方今年已经取得了进展。 然而，这些新对话的具体细节和定期性尚不清楚。美国财政部在周五的声明中表示，它们将以“规律的频率”举行。中国官方媒体发布了一份简短的声明，确认了工作组的成立，但缺乏细节，并表示该组计划举行“定期和不定期”的会议。 总的来说，这一发展是中美经济关系升温的迹象，但两国之间的沟通仍然脆弱。北京经常对美国的承诺表示怀疑，并指责华盛顿官员未能践行高级别的谈判。北京官员坚称，美国以国家和经济安全的名义，随意扩大了贸易和经济限制，以遏制中国的经济增长。 尽管存在挑战，珍妮特·耶伦和其他美国官员仍然致力于推动重开沟通渠道的努力，并警告拜登政府将继续采取有针对性的行动以保护美国的国家安全。这一发展突显了对话的重要性，特别是在双方存在分歧时。
2023-09-22T13:06:47.891Z
The U.S. Treasury Department announced Friday it had formally established two new working groups to discuss China-U.S. economic and financial issues, a tentative sign that communication is improving between the two countries following a trip to Beijing by Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen this summer.
The new format for regular talks follows years of roiling economic conflict between Beijing and Washington over sanctions, trade restrictions and the treatment of Chinese and U.S. companies abroad after economic dialogues broke down during the Trump administration.
The working groups will hold regular direct meetings for “frank and substantive discussions on economic and financial policy matters,” the Treasury statement said. It added the dialogues would also include and “exchange of information on macroeconomic and financial developments.”
The high-level meetings will be led by Yellen on the U.S. side while China’s economic czar, Vice Premier He Lifeng, will oversee the work led by different agencies in Beijing. U.S. Treasury officials will hold dialogues for the economic working group with Beijing’s Finance Ministry, while the financial talks will take place with representatives from China’s Central Bank.
The new dialogues are part of broader efforts by the White House to reestablish communication channels between Washington and Beijing on a range of geopolitical, security and economic matters following talks between President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bali last year. Those efforts have been hampered by hot-button issues, including the discovery of a Chinese spy balloon over the continental United States in February and rolling U.S. trade restrictions aimed at limiting Beijing’s access to U.S. technology.
China speaks of ‘rainbows’ during Yellen visit, but girds for trade battle
Nonetheless, the two sides have made strides this year. After abruptly canceling a visit over the spy balloon furor, Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Beijing in June. Yellen’s visit in July was followed by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in August, where she announced that the two sides had agreed to hold an official ongoing dialogue on commercial issues, beginning in early 2024, drawing in individuals from the private sector with the aim of resolving issues over U.S. commercial access to the Chinese market.
The new dialogues agreed to by Yellen and He appear to have a broader remit, but it is unclear how often the meetings will take place. In Friday’s statement, the Treasury Department said they would happen at a “regular cadence.” Chinese official media released a brief statement confirming the establishment of the working groups that was sparse on detail, but said the group plans to hold “regular and irregular” meetings.
“These Working Groups will serve as important forums to communicate America’s interests and concerns, promote a healthy economic competition between our two countries with a level playing field for American workers and businesses, and advance cooperation on global challenges,” said Yellen in a statement posted on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, on Friday following the Treasury Department announcement.
Regular high-level economic dialogues between Treasury officials and Beijing were mostly dismantled in 2017, when the Trump administration began implementing sweeping tariffs, trade restrictions and sanctions against Beijing — many of which have remained in place or been extended under the current administration.
Before Yellen’s visit in July, no U.S. treasury secretary had visited Beijing since 2019, when then-Secretary Steven Mnuchin and a team of negotiators conducted limited talks following a total breakdown in discussions months before.
As China’s economy slows, the buck stops with leader Xi Jinping
While the new working groups signal a thawing in the economic relationship, communication between the two sides remains fragile. Beijing routinely expresses skepticism of U.S. commitments and has accused officials in Washington of failing to follow through on high-level discussions. Officials in Beijing maintain that the United States has arbitrarily broadened trade and economic restrictions to contain China’s economic growth under the guise of national and economic security.
Most recently, Beijing accused the United States of ongoing economic “bullying” after Biden in August signed an executive order to establish a screening mechanism for outbound investments and restrict U.S. investment in advanced Chinese technologies, including semiconductors.
“President Biden committed to not seeking to 'decouple’ from China or halt China’s economic development. We urge the U.S. to follow through on that commitment, stop politicizing, instrumentalizing and weaponizing tech and trade issues,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin following the August announcement.
Yellen and other U.S. officials have sought to push ahead with efforts to reopen channels of communication, while warning that the Biden administration will continue to take targeted actions to protect U.S. national security.
“It is vital that we talk, particularly when we disagree,” said Yellen in her statement on X on Friday.