US-China economic talks ‘infinitely far away’ with ‘emphasis on competition over cooperation’
- Last week, Bloomberg reported that US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had no intention to resume regular high-level talks
- The US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) was created in 2009, but it was suspended by the Trump administration
The resumption of formal high level economic talks between China and the United States seems “infinitely far away”, according to Chinese experts, following reports the Biden administration has no plans to resurrect the regular communication channel that ground to a halt under former president Donald Trump.
The US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) mechanism was created in 2009 by the Obama administration as an upgrade to the Strategic Economic Dialogue that was initiated by the administration of president George W. Bush in 2006.
The upgrade agreed between former US president Barack Obama and former Chinese president Hu Jintao added a “strategic” track covering a broad range of global, regional and bilateral political and security issues, but it was suspended by the Trump administration.
Last week, Bloomberg reported that US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had no intention to resume the highest-level bilateral forum, which would cover a wide range of issues, even though her team is set to continue to speak to their Chinese counterparts.
“Of course China hopes that the dialogue can be resurrected, but China is also getting more and more realistic that it doesn’t expect the dialogue to resume in the foreseeable future,” said Shi Yinhong, an adviser to China’s State Council and a professor of international relations at Renmin University.
Shi said any restart now seems infinitely far away, with no way for the US government to accept the reopening of the dialogue after four years of the Trump administration, under which the bilateral relations between the two countries deteriorated dramatically.
Largely viewed as an imperfect mechanism that did not generate any significant outcomes, in 2013, the two countries did establish a hotline between the special representatives of the respective presidents to facilitate communication, while in 2015, China agreed for the first time not to intervene in exchange rate markets except under very limited conditions.