Headline: China plays smart, conducts economic talks with second top US official amid trade war
China has conducted talks with the second US top official over its trade concerns. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He shared his views with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on issues of mutual “concern”.
Liu was responsible for leading China`s negotiations in Sino-US trade talks since former US President Donald Trump went on a trade war with Beijing.
This development comes at a time when the US administration criticises Beijing on human rights abuses and seeks to rally other rich nations to form a united front on China.
“Secretary Yellen discussed the Biden-Harris administration’s plans to support a continued strong economic recovery and the importance of cooperating on areas that are in U.S. interests, while at the same time frankly tackling issues of concern,” the US Treasury Department said in a brief statement.
In Liu`s video call with Yellen, both sides exchanged talks on the macroeconomic situation and bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
“The two sides believed that the China-US economic relations are very important. They also “candidly exchanged views on issues of mutual concern, and expressed willingness to maintain communication.”
Last week, Tai said the United States still faces “very large challenges” in its trade and economic relationship with China.
The Biden administration is already conducting a review of US-China trade policy, ahead of the expiry of their Phase 1 deal at the end of 2021.
Beijing and Washington signed the deal in January 2020 which asks China to increase purchases of US agricultural goods, manufactured products, energy and services by $200 billion over 2020 and 2021, compared with a 2017 baseline.
The pact eased a two-year tariff war waged by Trump that aimed to change China’s trade practices, although duties remain in place on hundreds of billions of dollars of trade.
