Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen confronted her Chinese counterpart about China’s rising exports of low-cost electric vehicles and other green energy goods. She said they posed a threat to American jobs and called on Beijing to scale back its industrial strategy, according to the US government.
Ms. Yellen also warned her counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng, that Chinese companies could face “significant consequences” if they provided material support to Russia’s war against Ukraine, according to a Treasury Department summary released Saturday of two days of talks in the southern city of Guangzhou.
The meetings on Friday and Saturday were an attempt by the world’s two largest economies to address trade and geopolitical disputes as the countries seek to stabilize relations that hit a low point last year.
The US and China agreed to hold further talks in the future on curbing international money laundering and promoting “balanced growth”. The latter is partly aimed at addressing concerns that China’s focus on factory production to boost its flagging economy has led to an export glut that is distorting global markets.
The rise of heavily subsidized green technology exports from China was a focus of Ms. Yellen’s second trip to the country as Treasury secretary. Cheap Chinese electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels are a particular concern for the Biden administration, which is investing in these sectors at home.
“I think the Chinese are aware of how concerned we are about the impact of their industrial strategy on the United States, about the possibility of flooding our markets with exports that make it harder for American companies to compete,” said Ms. Yellen told reporters after the meetings.
Before her talks with Chinese officials, Ms. Yellen met with American and European executives whose companies operate in China. She listened to their concerns about China’s treatment of foreign companies and discussed how China’s export push is affecting the broader global economy.
Ms. Yellen received a warm welcome in Guangzhou, but China is pushing back against the idea that her economic strategy poses a threat.
In a social media post on Saturday, Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, argued that Chinese exports are a public good.
“Globally, high-quality industrial capacity and new productive forces are not in abundance, but in extremely short supply,” Mr. Liu wrote. “How to ensure that the world, particularly developing countries, benefits from such capabilities is a constant test of human conscience and ingenuity.”
After the talks concluded on Saturday, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported that Chinese officials had expressed to Ms. Yellen their own frustration with American economic strategy.
“China has expressed serious concern about the US’s economic and trade restrictive measures against China and fully responded to the issue of production capacity,” Xinhua said.
Ms. Yellen acknowledged that the issue was complicated for China. “It’s not going to be solved in an afternoon or a month,” she said.
Beyond economic issues, Ms. Yellen and Mr. He discussed Russia’s war in Ukraine and growing concerns in the United States that Chinese companies are helping to support Moscow’s military. The Biden administration has already imposed trade restrictions on Chinese companies it accuses of violating U.S. sanctions.
“We have made it clear to China that we expect Russia to receive support through goods that Chinese companies ship to Russia,” Ms. Yellen said.
She added that Mr. He had told her that China’s policy was not to provide military support to Russia. She expressed optimism that both sides could work together on the issue.
Ms. Yellen traveled from Guangzhou to Beijing on Saturday afternoon, where she was scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Li Qiang and Beijing Mayor Yin Yong on Sunday.
Siyi Zhao contributed reporting from Seoul.
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2024-04-06 08:54:22
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