Michelle ThompsonWorking groups represent a ‘significant step forward’ in relations with China, according to US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
As their rivalry grows more intense, the United States and China have established new working groups for economic and financial cooperation.
The working groups will be led by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Vice Premier He Lifeng of China, according to a statement released by the US Department of Treasury on Friday. They will convene “at a regular cadence.”
According to a statement from the department, “the two Working Groups will provide ongoing structured channels for frank and substantive discussions on economic and financial policy matters, as well as an exchange of information on macroeconomic and financial developments.”
The statement follows Yellen’s July trip to China, which was a component of US President Joe Biden’s administration’s efforts to normalize ties with Beijing.
Over a variety of problems, including trade, Taiwan’s legal status, China’s expanding claims in the South China Sea, and an ongoing American campaign against growing Chinese dominance in the Indo-Pacific, relations between China and the US have deteriorated recently.
Senior officials in the Biden administration, however, have stated that rather than wanting a confrontation with China, they are attempting to manage these tensions.
In a post on social media on Friday, Yellen said the new working groups built on her four-day trip to China two months prior and represented “an important step forward in our bilateral relationship.”
In accordance with President Biden’s advice following his meeting with President Xi in Bali, “my journey to China sought to build a long-lasting channel of communication between the two largest economies in the world. We must communicate, especially when we disagree, she remarked.
When US soldiers fired down a balloon that Washington claimed Beijing was using to spy on its territory, tensions between the US and China reached their lowest ebb in years.
China denied the claim, claiming the balloon “deviated far from its planned course” and was actually a civilian airship used for meteorological research.
The incident happened when Nancy Pelosi, who was the US House of Representatives speaker at the time, visited Taiwan last year. She was the most senior American politician to visit the island that Beijing claims as its own territory in more than 20 years.
High-level communication between the two parties has resumed after the balloon incident, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visiting Beijing a few weeks before Yellen’s visit.
However, the Biden administration has persisted in putting limitations on trade with China in sectors it views as essential to national security, such as premium semiconductors.
