Here’s who Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will meet in China

BEIJING – US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was due to arrive in China on Thursday ahead of four full days of meetings with Chinese officials.

This is her second trip to the country since the summer as the US and China seek to improve high-level communication in already strained relations. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also due to visit China again later this year.

“I think we expect that at the highest levels and increasingly at all levels we will continue to have an ongoing and deepening dialogue. We’ve gone too long with too little communication and misunderstandings have arisen,” Yellen told reporters ahead of her arrival in the United States. China.

Her trip will cover the southern city of Guangzhou – the capital of China’s export-oriented Guangdong province – and the national capital Beijing, the agency said. Press release.

Here is her full meeting itinerary:

• Friday, April 5 — meeting with Vice Premier He Lifeng, Governor of Guangdong Province Wang Weizhong, economic experts and business representatives from AmCham China.
• Saturday, April 6 — continue meetings with Vice Premier He Lifeng
• Sunday, April 7 — meet with Prime Minister Li Qiang, Finance Minister Lan Foan, Beijing Mayor Yin Yong, leading Chinese economists, students and professors of Peking University.
• Monday, April 8 – Meeting with former Vice Premier Liu He, Governor of the People’s Bank of China Pan Gongsheng.

According to the Treasury Department, Yellen will discuss “unfair trade practices and highlight the global economic consequences of China’s industrial overcapacity.”

China has faced growing global scrutiny over how the country’s emphasis on boosting its manufacturing capabilities, including the use of subsidies and policy support to do so, has helped Chinese companies sell products such as solar panels at much lower prices than manufacturers in other countries. .

In March, European Union Chamber of Commerce President Jens Eskelund said trade tensions between the EU and China were likely to worsen as a result.

According to Wind Information, Guangdong is now China’s leading province in terms of export volume.

The province exported nearly 5.4 trillion yuan ($750 billion) worth of industrial products last year, two-thirds of which were equipment, according to Tu Gaokun, director of Guangdong’s Department of Industry and Information Technology.

He told reporters last week that the province is “committed” to increasing productivity and said it is targeting sectors such as new energy storage, biomanufacturing and commercial aviation.

During her meetings in China, Yellen will also “work to expand bilateral cooperation to combat illicit finance, which could facilitate important progress in joint efforts to combat criminal activities such as drug trafficking and fraud,” the Treasury said.

He added that Yellen will discuss working to strengthen financial stability, address climate change and resolve the debt crisis in developing countries.

The trip will be Yellen’s third meeting with Vice Premier He Lifeng, who is also Treasury Secretary. going to meet later this month at the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group in Washington, DC

He Lifeng is also director of the office of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission, a position formerly held by Liu.