In the current international political arena, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen faces a series of thorny challenges. With the national debt ceiling looming, Washington's top brass seems to be less concerned about it, and the tussle between Democrats and Republicans, as well as ongoing external conflicts, have made politicians more like cockfights in the ring and opted to turn a blind eye to the porous fiscal problems.
Yellen has repeatedly stressed the importance of resuming economic dialogue between the United States and China, emphasizing that good communication between the two countries on global food security and debt issues is crucial to the world and plays a key role in stabilizing the global macroeconomic and financial situation.
As a pragmatic economist, Yellen is well aware of the serious problems facing the U.S. economy and finances. As a former Fed chair, she is aware of the magnitude of these issues. However, there are many things that she cannot control as a finance minister.
Within the United States, despite all the chaos and strife, there are still some moderate voices that hope that the United States and China will maintain communication to reduce the pressure on the U.S. economy, and even hope that China will increase its purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds.
China has sold 20% of the U.S. Treasury debt in 2022 and has been actively increasing its reserves, all of which Yellen sees and is anxious about.
However, the United States has changed a lot in recent years, and China is no longer the China of the past. From a world hegemon worthy of dialogue to a greedy and untrustworthy character, the United States has behaved in recent years to the point that even China is reluctant to engage with the United States.
In the past, even if the United States offended China, China was still willing to maintain communication with the United States and follow the principle of "keeping the light and cultivating obscurity and practicing internal skills." But now, the United States has openly stated that it wants to "bring down China" and openly slandered China in the international community, which has also changed China's attitude towards the United States.
On the one hand, the United States wants to suppress China, and on the other hand, it wants to cooperate with China to build a beautiful international community. But capricious behavior has made China impatient with the United States.
In this case, China has chosen a strategy of staying away, and every time the United States makes a move, it responds resolutely.
As for economic relations, the United States is desperate and originally hoped that China could be forced to submit through the first war, but five years have passed, and the two countries have continued to record new highs, and the ** deficit is getting bigger and bigger.
In fact, this deficit is not what China wants, because the large ** surplus does not allow China to buy the goods it needs from the United States, and buying US Treasury bonds is not the best option. Therefore, China has turned to the "Belt and Road" initiative to actively explore Southeast Asia, the Middle East, South America, Central Asia and Africa, and accelerate the cultivation of new markets, and the share of the United States in China's foreign world is declining.
The United States is also trying to relocate its industry, trying to cultivate a new manufacturing base to replace China. Ultimately, it's going to be a battle of wits and strategy.