The U.S. Treasury Department announced Friday it had formally established two new working groups to discuss China-U.S. economic and financial issues, a tentative sign that communication is improving between the two countries following a trip to Beijing by Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen this summer.
Economy
Xinhua Headlines: Steady Chinese economy making difference in rapidly changing world – Xinhua | English.news.cn – Xinhua
Video PlayerClose
China has been a major growth engine for the world economy and its economic health has global significance. China’s growth rate, though slowing, is still within the target range. A closer relationship would mean more opportunities and benefits for China and the rest of the world.
by Xinhua writers Zheng Xin, Xu Xiaoqing and Hu Wenjia
SHANGHAI, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) — The world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, with people lamenting the uncertainties and the difficulty to fathom what the future has in store.
The Chinese leadership, having incorporated the concept of “unseen changes” into its decision-making, is sober-minded about the undercurrents: the global economy continues to slow down, the world is still undergoing in-depth adjustments due to the global financial crisis, profound changes are accelerating, and sources of turbulence have substantially increased.
The year-end tone-setting Central Economic Conference painted a clear picture of the challenges, prioritized economic stability, and pledged a stronger policy repertoire toward finishing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects in 2020 and beyond.
Experts said they believe it would be a mistake to ignore the profound changes, which are important for the Communist Party of China’s approaches to so many issues and understanding the opportunities the Party sees for the country.
Aerial photo taken on Oct. 16, 2019 shows the automated wharf of the fourth phase of the Yangshan Deep Water Port of east China’s Shanghai. (Xinhua/Ding Ting)
LULL IN THE CHINA BOOM?
Some profound changes have been felt globally in the sphere of economic activities. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has repeatedly downgraded its global growth forecast for 2020, citing a sharp deterioration in manufacturing activity and global trade, with higher tariffs and prolonged trade policy uncertainty damaging investment and demand for capital goods.
As the growth outlook became gloomier, emerging and developing economies are less well-positioned today to withstand a deeper global downturn, should it occur, than they were before the 2009 global recession, according to a new World Bank Group study.
Since the financial crisis a decade ago, emerging and developing economies have become “more vulnerable” to external shocks in an environment of “mounting debt and weakening long-term growth prospects,” the study found.
Rodrigo Zeidan, an associate professor of business and finance at New York University Shanghai, said one aspect of the profound changes is the process of de-globalization fueled by exacerbated nationalism and protectionist trade policies.
“This has profound implications for how China manages its economic relationships with the rest of the world,” he told Xinhua in an interview, noting that the profound changes could also make avoiding the middle-income trap to achieve high-income fully-developed status more challenging for China.
China is seeing a slower growth rate as it steps up economic restructuring. The country is transforming from high-speed growth to high-quality growth, no longer driven by manufacturing but by consumption and the service sector, with more investment into innovation and technology.
People watch welding robots operating at the equipment exhibition area during the second China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 6, 2019. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe)
“It’s crucial for China’s economy to move up in the technological chain and in the value chain, so we are focusing on economic restructuring, and China’s growth rate has slowed down in the process,” said Zhang Weiwei, director of the China Institute of Fudan University in Shanghai.
“Given the sheer size of China’s economy, a dip in growth rate is no cause for heightened worries over the stable economic trajectory,” Zhang said, adding that doomsayers targeting China’s economy should pay more attention to the quality of growth and how the nation stands at the forefront of the new round of technological revolution.
Voicing her confidence in China’s future growth amid low global economic growth, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said the measures that the Chinese government had taken to prop up the economy, including tax and fee cuts, small trims in interest rates and supply-side structural reforms would be good for growth today and also competitiveness in the future.
Kristalina Georgieva, chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), delivers a speech in Washington D.C., the United States, Oct. 8, 2019. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)
SOURCE OF CERTAINTY
“The profound changes include positive changes, negative changes, and changes with uncertain prospects and uncertainties,” said Long Yongtu, China’s former chief negotiator for entry into the World Trade Organization. “The most positive change, in my view, is the rise of China.”
Commenting on how China will cope with the challenges ahead, Long said: “Facing the turbulent situation, our government and enterprises need to maintain their resolve, especially when it comes to opening up.”
He noted that the Chinese government remains committed to further opening up amid de-globalization, with the annual China International Import Expo and joint building of the Belt and Road Initiative enhancing the engagement between China and the world.
Zhu Xian, vice president of the New Development Bank, said: “China’s reform and opening-up have catapulted the country to a highly competitive manufacturing base in the global industrial chain, and further reform and opening-up will enable China to achieve long-term stable and sustainable development.”
China has been a major growth engine for the world economy and its economic health has global significance. China’s growth rate, though slowing, is still within the target range. A closer relationship would mean more opportunities and benefits for China and the rest of the world.
Aerial photo taken on Oct. 16, 2019 shows the Yangshan Deep Water Port of east China’s Shanghai. (Xinhua/Ding Ting)
According to a research report by McKinsey Global Institute, China has achieved a global scale in many sectors, and a great deal of value could be at stake depending on whether there is more or less engagement.
China’s rapidly expanding consumer market — confident, increasingly rich and sophisticated, and willing to experiment — offers a strong link between China and the world. It is not only the prime engine for economic growth but is a huge opportunity for international businesses, according to the report.
“More engagement could see China importing more from the rest of the world, greater two-way flows of technology, and a more competitive Chinese services sector,” the report said, adding that better integration will also increase the possibility of reaching a consensus in addressing key global issues.
The year ahead will see China implement a slew of new measures to bolster opening up. The reduction of import tariffs on more than 850 products is set to take effect from Jan. 1, 2020, and the foreign investment law will take effect on the same day to provide a more business-friendly environment.
“We believe that economic globalization is irreversible. The more you keep opening up and embrace this trend, the better,” said Zhang Weiwei. ■
(Video reporters: Di Chun, Hu Wenjia; Video editor: Chen Sihong)
Continue Reading
We use cookies and data to
- Deliver and maintain Google services
- Track outages and protect against spam, fraud, and abuse
- Measure audience engagement and site statistics to understand how our services are used and enhance the quality of those services
If you choose to “Accept all,” we will also use cookies and data to
- Develop and improve new services
- Deliver and measure the effectiveness of ads
- Show personalized content, depending on your settings
- Show personalized ads, depending on your settings
If you choose to “Reject all,” we will not use cookies for these additional purposes.
Non-personalized content is influenced by things like the content you’re currently viewing, activity in your active Search session, and your location. Non-personalized ads are influenced by the content you’re currently viewing and your general location. Personalized content and ads can also include more relevant results, recommendations, and tailored ads based on past activity from this browser, like previous Google searches. We also use cookies and data to tailor the experience to be age-appropriate, if relevant.
Select “More options” to see additional information, including details about managing your privacy settings. You can also visit g.co/privacytools at any time.
|
|
The working groups will hold regular direct meetings for “frank and substantive discussions on economic and financial policy matters,” the Treasury statement said. It added that the dialogues would also include and “exchange of information on macroeconomic and financial developments.”
The high-level meetings will be led by Yellen on the U.S. side. China’s economic czar, Vice Premier He Lifeng, will oversee the work led by different agencies in Beijing. U.S. Treasury officials will hold dialogues for the economic working group with Beijing’s Finance Ministry, while the financial talks will take place with representatives from China’s Central Bank.
The new dialogues are part of broader efforts by the White House to reestablish communication channels between Washington and Beijing on a range of geopolitical, security and economic matters following talks between President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bali last year. Those efforts have been hampered by hot-button issues, including the discovery of a Chinese spy balloon over the continental United States in February and rolling U.S. trade restrictions aimed at limiting Beijing’s access to U.S. technology.
Nonetheless, the two sides have made strides this year. After abruptly canceling a visit over the spy balloon furor, Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Beijing in June. Yellen’s visit in July was followed by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s in August, where she announced that the two sides had agreed to hold an official ongoing dialogue on commercial issues, beginning in early 2024, drawing in individuals from the private sector with the aim of resolving issues over U.S. commercial access to the Chinese market.
The new dialogues agreed to by Yellen and He appear to have a broader scope, but it is unclear how often the meetings will take place. In Friday’s statement, the Treasury Department said they would happen at a “regular cadence.” Chinese official media released a brief statement confirming the establishment of the working groups that was sparse on detail, but said the group plans to hold “regular and irregular” meetings.
“These Working Groups will serve as important forums to communicate America’s interests and concerns, promote a healthy economic competition between our two countries with a level playing field for American workers and businesses, and advance cooperation on global challenges,” said Yellen in a statement posted on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, on Friday following the Treasury Department announcement.
Regular high-level economic dialogues between Treasury officials and Beijing were mostly dismantled in 2017, when the Trump administration began implementing sweeping tariffs, trade restrictions and sanctions against Beijing — many of which have remained in place or been extended under the current administration.
Before Yellen’s visit in July, no U.S. treasury secretary had visited Beijing since 2019, when then-Secretary Steven Mnuchin and a team of negotiators conducted limited talks following a total breakdown in discussions months before.
While the new working groups signal a thawing in the economic relationship, communication between the two sides remains fragile. Beijing routinely expresses skepticism of U.S. commitments and has accused officials in Washington of failing to follow through on high-level discussions. Officials in Beijing maintain that the United States has arbitrarily broadened trade and economic restrictions to contain China’s economic growth under the guise of national and economic security.
Most recently, Beijing accused the United States of ongoing economic “bullying” after Biden in August signed an executive order to establish a screening mechanism for outbound investments and to restrict U.S. investment in advanced Chinese technologies, including semiconductors.
“President Biden committed to not seeking to ‘decouple’ from China or halt China’s economic development. We urge the U.S. to follow through on that commitment, stop politicizing, instrumentalizing and weaponizing tech and trade issues,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin following the August announcement.
Yellen and other U.S. officials have sought to push ahead with efforts to reopen channels of communication, while warning that the Biden administration will continue to take targeted actions to protect U.S. national security.
“It is vital that we talk, particularly when we disagree,” said Yellen in her statement on X on Friday.
|
|
LONDON — Amid growing international criticism, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has defended watering down key U.K. climate policies.
In a press conference Wednesday, Sunak announced a series of major U-turns on climate policies, including delaying by five years the target to ban sales of new gas and diesel cars — which will now come into force in 2035 rather than 2030 — and a nine-year delay on phasing out gas boilers, which will now come into force in 2035.
Sunak insisted he was not slowing down efforts to combat climate change. But his government’s own climate adviser called the prime minister’s assertion that the U.K. would still succeed in meeting its 2050 net-zero target “wishful thinking.”
Sunak said the changes were about being “pragmatic” and sparing the British public the “unacceptable cost” of net-zero commitments.
His home secretary, Suella Braverman, told the BBC that the Conservative government was “not going to save the planet by bankrupting British people.”
The government’s Climate Change Committee — independent advisers on cutting carbon emissions — estimates that meeting Britain’s legally binding goal of reaching net zero by 2050 will require an extra $61 billion of investment every year by 2030.
But the committee has said that once the savings from reduced use of fossil fuels are factored in, the overall resource cost of the transition to net zero will be less than 1% of GDP over the next 30 years. By 2044, the committee has said, breaching net zero should become cost-saving, as newer clean technologies are more efficient than those they are replacing.
Criticism at home and abroad
Sunak’s overhaul of his green targets has been met with criticism at home and internationally.
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore described the changes as “shocking and disappointing” and “not what the world needs from the United Kingdom.”
Some in the prime minister’s own Conservative Party warned that the changes risk damaging Britain’s reputation as a global leader on the climate.
Sunak decided not to attend the United Nations Climate Summit in New York this week, making him the first British prime minister to miss a U.N. General Assembly in a decade.
Former Conservative minister Alok Sharma, who chaired the 2021 COP26 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, told the BBC Wednesday’s announcement had been met with “consternation” from international colleagues.
“My concern is whether people now look to us and say, ‘Well, if the U.K. is starting to row back on some of these policies, maybe we should do the same,'” he said.
In the U.K., Sunak’s announcement prompted a backlash from climate activists, car manufacturers and the energy industry.
In a statement, U.K. Ford chair Lisa Brankin said, “Our business needs three things from the U.K. government: ambition, commitment and consistency. A relaxation of 2030 would undermine all three.”
And the chief executive of one of Britain’s largest energy suppliers, Eon UK, said the move was a “misstep on many levels.”
Sunak’s pivot occurs as extreme weather due to climate change is growing more frequent
Sunak said the announcement was part of his desire for a more “honest debate” about what reaching net zero will actually mean for the British public.
But he has come under criticism from the British media for claiming to scrap measures that some have pointed out never existed as formal government policy in the first place, such as taxing meat and requiring households to have seven different waste and recycling bins. (The government had previously said it wanted to standardize waste collection in England, although the plan was subsequently delayed and never became policy).
Political analysts say Sunak’s gamble marks a shift for the prime minister, who has spent his first year in office largely steadying the ship after the tumultuous governments of his predecessors Liz Truss and Boris Johnson. With a general election coming up next year, they say, Sunak has chosen net zero as a dividing line.
Sunak’s pivot away from more aggressive action on global warming occurs as extreme weather is becoming more frequent and more intense around the world, including the U.K., because of the effects of climate change. Scientists say this will continue as long as humans continue to emit planet-warming greenhouse gases.
In the U.K., temperatures hit 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time on record in July 2022. The World Weather Attribution network says this would have been “basically impossible” without climate change.
During this week’s climate summit in New York, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the capital faced what he called the “incredibly worrying” prospect of seeing 45-degree Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) days in the “forseeable future.”
Economy2 hours ago
US-China Relations Thaw With Groups to Discuss Economic, Financial Issues – Bloomberg
Business2 hours ago
US auto workers expand strike as Biden prepares to join picket line – Al Jazeera English
Media2 hours ago
Indian Media Attack Trudeau Over Claim of Extrajudicial Killing of Sikh Leader – Bloomberg
-
Business15 hours ago
Morgan Stanley Says All Oil Signals Flashing Tightness
-
Art20 hours ago
‘You could fill a museum with it’: the $963m Roman Abramovich art collection revealed
-
Media14 hours ago
The Supreme Court showdown over social media “censorship” and free speech online
-
News19 hours ago
Ukraine news: Zelenskyy in Canada, will speak to Parliament
-
Business16 hours ago
Amazon to move to default ad-tier model for Prime Video
-
Art16 hours ago
Culture Days in the City of Barrie aim to inspire public participation in arts and culture
-
News15 hours ago
Canada recall: Shimano bike cranksets removed over crash hazard
-
Business18 hours ago
Rupert Murdoch exit may give Trump a Fox News ‘reset,’ Republican strategists say