Can the US and China Go Back to Being Frenemies?
The superpower rivals appear to be finding a fragile new equilibrium, one that may open the door to some hard-nosed dealmaking.
Yellen walked a careful line in Beijing.
Photographer: Pedro Pardo - Pool/Getty Images AsiaPacThose hoping for substantive outcomes must have found US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s recent visit to China a disappointment. Her talks with senior Chinese officials produced positive press coverage but no specific agreements to ease commercial relations between the superpower rivals.
That should perhaps have been expected. Mutual distrust and antagonism are too deeply embedded for either side to make even modest concessions. That said, following on Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Beijing last month and with climate envoy John Kerry expected to make his own trip next week, the outlines of a new equilibrium in US-China relations appear to be emerging.