Yellen Bows to China

National Review Online

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

 

It’s not often that Washington’s accommodation of Beijing’s wishes takes the form of something approximating an actual kowtow.

 

But that’s what seemed to take place this weekend in the Chinese capital as Janet Yellen met Chinese vice premier He Lifeng. In a video from the start of their meeting, Yellen bows three times as she shakes the hand of He, who stands straight up.

 

The Treasury secretary spent two days there, meeting senior Chinese officials for talks on the bilateral economic relationship. But her overarching goal in making the trip was to continue the administration’s apology campaign. High-ranking U.S. officials have made a series of visits to Beijing to jumpstart diplomatic exchange after China’s government withheld it in retaliation for America’s handling of the deliberate Chinese provocation of the spy balloon.

 

The White House has also made significant policy concessions, including delays of human-rights sanctions and export controls. This new stance secured a meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese general secretary Xi Jinping last month. And later this month, John Kerry, the special climate envoy, will make his own trip to Beijing.

 

While Yellen said at the end of her trip that she had discussed China’s crackdown on America’s firms, Chinese firms’ shipping of matériel to the Russian military, and human-rights abuses, her tone was mostly conciliatory.

 

Notably, Yellen said that the two sides agreed to set up a channel where Chinese officials can raise U.S. actions that they view as concerning so that “we can explain and, possibly in some situations, respond to unintended consequences of our actions if they’re not carefully targeted.”

 

Under both the Trump and Biden administrations, the U.S. government has implemented sanctions, export controls, and other tools of economic statecraft to target malign Chinese behavior. Washington has applied export restrictions and investment bans to Chinese military-linked firms like Huawei, sanctioned those tasked with carrying out egregious abuses, and severely limited China’s access to advanced computer chips. The logic behind this is simple: American technology and capital should not facilitate China’s efforts to develop technologies with which it might one day kill Americans.

 

Naturally, Beijing objects to this essential project. And although the White House is unlikely to dismantle it, it can blunt, or slow-walk, any further progress if doing so is viewed as helpful in securing meetings with Chinese officials. In that sense, Yellen’s promise to stand up what is effectively an appeals process indicates the disturbing direction in which Biden’s policy is headed. The administration should soon offer an executive order to keep U.S. investment from going to Chinese military companies; Yellen’s trip is a good indication that the eventual result might be underwhelming.

 

Worryingly, Chinese officials seem to think that the Biden administration will continue to soften its stance. At the start of their meeting last week, Premier Li Qiang told Yellen that he can see “rainbows” after the winds and rains that have clouded the U.S.-China relationship. He, at least, is seeing clearly.