US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen meets with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He for the first time
The US and China have been trying to patch things up a bit over the past few months.
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The backstory: For the past couple of years, relations between the US and China have gotten a little rocky when it comes to issues like Taiwan, the South China Sea, tech and trade. But the two have been trying to patch things up a bit over the past few months. Last November, President Biden and President Xi met in person to figure out better ways of communicating and cooperating.
More recently: With the World Economic Forum in full swing this week, the financial leaders of many countries are in Switzerland, including US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He. At the conference on Tuesday, Liu said it’s time for world leaders to reject the “Cold War mentality” and become more internationally cooperative.
The development: On Wednesday, Yellen met with Liu in Zurich, Switzerland. This was their first face-to-face meeting. They talked about how the two countries should collaborate on things like financing the fight against climate change and supporting developing countries in adopting clean energy solutions. Both finance leaders are trying to avoid national recessions, and they spoke about debt issues, food security and energy. Yellen also said she looks forward to visiting China, sharing an open invitation for her counterparts to visit the US, too.
Key comments:
“No matter how circumstances change, we should always maintain dialogue and exchanges,” Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said on increasing cooperation between China and the US.
“We share a responsibility to show that China and the United States can manage our differences and prevent competition from becoming anything ever near conflict. While we have areas of disagreement, and we will convey them directly, we should not allow misunderstandings, particularly those stemming from a lack of communication, to unnecessarily worsen our bilateral economic and financial relationship,” US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in her opening remarks.
“We’re certainly seeing more engagement between the US and China,” said Gita Gopinath, an IMF official, to Bloomberg TV at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday. “These meetings are critical. These are the two largest economies in the world. It’s important for the rest of the world that they work closely together.”
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