U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will visit China on Wednesday for about a week of high-level talks aimed at further stabilizing financial and economic relations around the world and protecting the U.S. clean energy industry from Chinese competition. He said he would not rule out the possibility of taking additional measures. Two major economic powers.
During a refueling stop in Alaska, Yellen told reporters that the Biden administration wants to help grow the U.S. solar panel, electric vehicle and battery industries.
Asked if she intended to raise the possibility of new trade barriers, Yellen said: “We provide tax subsidies to some of these sectors, but we have other measures to protect these sectors. “We don’t want to rule out any possible options.” Chinese counterpart.
He did not say whether new U.S. measures might include tariffs.
Ahead of her visit, Yellen said China’s clean energy subsidies and industrial overcapacity are “hurting not just American businesses and workers, but businesses and workers around the world.” .
Yellen’s visit to China will be her second after US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone this week, their first since their meeting in November. The move is against the backdrop of increased scrutiny of the Chinese government ahead of the US presidential election, and the US government is tightening restrictions on sales of high-tech products to China.
After a 105-minute phone conversation, Mr. Xi warned Mr. Biden that the United States was “creating risks” by curbing China’s trade and technological development, state news agency Xinhua reported.
A Treasury Department official briefing reporters ahead of the visit said Yellen will meet with China’s economic czar, Vice Premier He Lifeng, and other current and former central government officials, as well as students, professors and business leaders. said.
Her visit began with a two-day stop in the southern city of Guangzhou, where Yellen held a roundtable with economic experts to discuss China’s economic challenges and opportunities, as well as U.S. business leaders and Guangdong Wang Wang. He also plans to meet with the governor. Wei Zhong.
“Secretary Yellen is interested in listening to a variety of voices within China to better understand the current dynamics within China,” the official said.
Yellen will meet with students and professors from Peking University and leading Chinese economists in Beijing. His meetings with central government officials include round-table discussions with China’s central bank governor and finance minister.
During her visit, Yellen will also meet with China’s No. 2 official, Li Qiang.
A senior Treasury official said the trip was aimed at building on the intensive diplomacy Yellen has already undertaken to manage the relationship. Since her first visit to China last July, Yellen and Beijing’s He Lifeng have set up an economic and financial working group. The group will discuss issues facing the two countries and policy responses, including the real estate crisis in China and the collapse of two major U.S. banks last year.
In recent weeks, the United States and the European Union have increasingly focused on subsidies and the impact of China’s overcapacity and cheap exports.
Gary Clyde Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former Treasury official, said he believed the main purpose of Yellen’s visit was to discuss overcapacity with Chinese officials. Ta. But he does not expect China to take any action.
“China may give a sympathetic response, but I don’t expect any policy changes,” he told VOA’s Mandarin service in an email.
Yellen said last week that she did not want to focus on retaliation but would warn China about the impact that state-run underwriting of energy and other companies was having on China during her visit.
FILE – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (center) visits solar company Suniva in Norcross, Georgia, on March 27, 2024.
“When I visit, I will talk to the Chinese about the overcapacity in some of these industries, and how this is having the undesirable effect of flooding the market with cheap goods, not only in the United States but in many other countries as well. We want them to understand that they are our closest allies,” Yellen said.
Her remarks came during a visit to a solar power manufacturing plant in Georgia, one of the key battleground states in the upcoming presidential election.
Former US President Donald Trump has said that if elected, he would impose additional tariffs on China that could exceed 60%.
In late February, the U.S. Department of Commerce began investigating whether data transmitted by Chinese vehicles poses a national security threat. US lawmakers are also calling on Biden to raise tariffs on Chinese-made EVs. The EU is also investigating subsidies for China’s EV industry.
The European Commission on Wednesday announced an investigation into subsidies that two Chinese-owned solar panel companies may have received. Both companies are candidates for a public tender for a solar power park in Romania.
Li Ya and VOA Chinese Service contributed to this report. Some information was provided by Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
