China and the United States are the world's largest economies and most important financial partners. Recently, the U.S. Department of the Treasury visited China, and the two sides held the third meeting of the China-US Financial Working Group in Beijing, where they conducted in-depth exchanges on financial stability, cross-border financial institutions, cross-border payments and other topics. The mechanism, which was established in July last year, reflects the two countries' shared interest in maintaining the stability of their financial systems. Only the orderly and safe financial exchanges between the two sides can avoid a runaway financial crisis, which is conducive to the development of the two countries, the region and the world.
For China, the internationalization of the renminbi is a long-term strategic goal, and it is necessary to gradually improve the global layout and settlement system of the renminbi. In this process, the U.S. dollar acts as an intermediary currency as a buffer. China is the world's largest surplus country, with ample dollar reserves, and it also takes time to dispose of dollar assets. The stability of China-US financial relations will help China smoothly promote the internationalization of the renminbi.
For the United States, the growing debt problem, rising debt levels of American residents, and tight bank liquidity due to aggressive interest rate hikes have all increased systemic risk in the U.S. financial system. The financial sanctions imposed by the United States on Russia have already led to a decline in the influence of the dollar, and China, as the world's largest industrial country, is the vitality of the real economy, and the United States cannot afford the risk of a full-scale financial war with China.
Therefore, the cooperation between the two countries on the mechanism of the financial working group is a pragmatic move based on practical interests. At the same time, China is also continuing to hold U.S. bonds, with its holdings falling to its lowest level since 2009. This also shows that while China is carrying out short-term financial cooperation, it is also avoiding the risks of the dollar system.
In addition to financial cooperation, China and the United States also have close exchanges in agriculture. On January 18, the Chinese and American agriculture ministers held the seventh meeting of the Joint Commission on Agriculture in the United States, the first agricultural meeting between the two countries since 2015. The USDA released soybean export data for 2023-2024, showing that China bought 20.2 million mt of soybeans from the U.S. that year, down from 27.2 million mt in the previous season.
China imported 9,940. from around the world in 2023, according to Chinese customs data90,000 tons of soybeans China is the world's largest importer of soybeans, with soybeans from the United States accounting for 1.5 percent of China's total imports. On January 19, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released daily sales data showing that the U.S. had a 29 percent sales data against China70,000 tons of soybeans At present, U.S. soybean exports to China face competition from Brazil, which has become the largest country in China importing soybeans. Some analysts believe that from February, the ** of Brazilian soybeans will be 1 lower than that of U.S. soybeans$50. As a non-staple crop, soybean lacks the best advantage in China's low per capita arable land area.
China's large import and reserve of soybeans is not only conducive to improving the dietary level of the Chinese people, but also conducive to the diversification of procurement, thereby enhancing the initiative of the market. In addition to the United States, Russia, Brazil, and Argentina are also major soybean importers from China. China is fulfilling its commitment to promoting China-US economic and trade cooperation through concrete actions. In contrast, the United States has shown little integrity in its commitments to China. It not only colludes with the "leading forces" on the Taiwan Strait issue, but also continues to promote decoupling and severance with China in the economic field. Restrictions have been increased in key areas such as chips, and the scope of restrictions has gradually expanded to mature process chips.
China's import of soybeans from the United States is a commercial practice that is not interfered with by political factors. In the case of multiple imports**, soybeans are also a means that China can use against the United States, in addition to gallium, germanium, rare earths and other fields. If necessary, China can make the United States pay the price for its unilateralist approach.