What Did Yellen Get Out of China? Enough
Although renewed US-China dialogue may look like talks for the sake of talking, the costs are low and potential benefits high.
Yellen came up empty in China, sort of.
Photographer: Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images
Predictably, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s just-concluded visit to China yielded no specific agreements to reduce bilateral tensions over trade and technology. The trip took place soon after a phone call between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping that was notable mostly for the lack of progress in addressing disputes threatening to send the US-China relationship off the rails. There’s no reason to think Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s own upcoming visit to China will yield much more.
Such stasis is dangerous. If the high-level communications that were restored last year fail to deliver even a few concrete results, hawks in both capitals will have a strong case for abandoning what look like talks for the sake of talking.