The White House readout states that the two leaders have agreed that Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit China, which has been tentatively planned for early next year. Meanwhile, when asked about this news in a regular press conference on March 3, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said that “China strongly deplores and firmly rejects this” and that “We urge the US to … stop suppressing Chinese companies under false pretexts, and provide Chinese companies with open, just, and non-discriminatory treatment”. According to the unnamed Reuters source, the PCAOB will begin conducting on-site audits of “branches of EY, Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers and some other audit firms in both Hong Kong and mainland China” as early as this week. In 2022, around 30 PCAOB staff spent nine weeks from September to November conducting on-site inspections and investigations in Hong Kong, which included reviewing “thousands of pages of audit documentation”. The board said it was able to get “unfettered access” to all audit documentation in these inspections, potentially saving some companies from forced delistings. The new bill comes after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) threatened to ban TikTok completely in the US if Bytedance did not sell its US stake in the app.
Taiwan conflict unlikely in 2022
In June, the US House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act for the year 2025 (FY25 NDAA), which includes the Countering CCP Drones Act. Among other things, this Act will require the inclusion of telecommunications and video surveillance equipment or services produced by the Chinese drone company DJI on a list of communications equipment or services that are “unacceptable risk to U.S. national security”. This would prohibit the use of federal funding to purchase or maintain any of the listed DJI equipment or services. Exporters will be required to apply for licenses through provincial commerce departments and submit detailed documentation, including contracts, technical descriptions, end-user and end-use certificates, and identification of key personnel. The Ministry of Commerce, in conjunction with relevant departments, will review applications and issue export licenses. The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), the General Administration of Customs, and the Central Military Commission’s Equipment Development Department have announced new export controls on drones and their key components, with the measures set to take effect on September 1, 2024.
What are some of the criticisms of the trade relationship?
China’s preferential trade status, a cornerstone of its economic growth, is under renewed scrutiny in the United States. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC), a leading advisory panel on China, has recommended repealing this status. The panel argues that it allows China to enjoy favorable trade terms despite engaging in unfair trade practices. This proposal aligns with growing bipartisan support in the US Congress for adopting a tougher stance on China’s economic policies. The meeting, while producing no major breakthroughs, underscored the complexity of managing bilateral tensions as the US prepares for a potentially more confrontational approach under Trump.
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He also stated that the US “cooperate with China, properly manage differences between the two sides, and do more constructive things to bring bilateral relations back to the right track of sound and steady development”. The readout of the conversation posted on the White House website was very brief, stating that the conversation was a follow-up to their March 14 meeting in Rome, that it “focused on regional security issues and nonproliferation”, and that the two “also discussed Russia’s war against Ukraine and specific issues in US-China relations”. The bilateral meetings, which took place in San Francisco before the start of the APEC Summit, covered a broad range of issues, including bilateral engagement on climate change, debt restructuring, promoting global financial stability, national security, and outbound investment.
- Senior officials from the US Department of the Treasury and the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) convened in Shanghai for the fifth meeting of the Financial Working Group (FWG) on August 15-16, 2024.
- Blinken’s meetings in Beijing are undoubtedly a positive sign of a “thaw” in the relationship and marks an incremental step toward more stable ties.
- As Trump and Xi head to the negotiating table, the conditions are ripe for an inflection point in U.S.-Chinese relations that could set a path toward a more stable and effective relationship.
- He will also attend the 30th APEC Economic Leaders’ Informal Dialogue, which will take place on November 16.
How Vulnerable Is India to Chinese Economic Coercion?
- To replace the Trump-era ban, Biden signed new orders calling for the Commerce Department to launch national security reviews of apps with links to foreign adversaries, including China.
- The two sides also discussed other global security issues, including the Russia-Ukraine War and the “provocations from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”.
- China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) has updated the Catalog of China’s Prohibited and Restricted Technologies for Export, per an announcement.
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk met with China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing on Tuesday during his first trip to China since 2020.
- Senior US and Chinese officials met in Beijing for the third Financial Working Group (FWG) meeting from January 18 to 19, the first of these meetings to be held in China.
He criticized Washington DC for interfering in China’s internal affairs, slandering China over COVID-19, and pushing “pseudo-multilateralism” by forming anti-China cliques. On Friday, China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, held a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “Stop slandering China, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs, and stop harming China’s interests,” a spokesman said on Monday.
Biden has also previously stated that he will seek to maintain open lines of communication with China on important issues. The foreign minister was set to receive the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in February, but the trip was canceled following fallout from the so-called “balloon incident”. This meeting was therefore the first high-level meeting between Chinese and US officials since this incident. This is the latest in a string of meetings between US and Chinese officials, including a meeting between Chinese Diplomat Wang Yi Met with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in Vienna at the beginning of May.
The answer to the second question—how China’s current economic issues will impact the U.S.-China relationship going forward—is more complex. In this Council Special Report, CFR fellows Jennifer Hillman and Inu Manak contend that U.S.-led changes to international rules on subsidies would give the United States a powerful tool to address its concerns over competition with China. Though the trade relationship has undoubtedly brought benefits, it has also presented the United States and other countries with a host of problems. Any U.S. decoupling from China could reach its limits in the next decade since the two economies are still greatly interdependent, according to experts from the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace.
It also follows the No TikTok on Government Devices Act (S.3455), which was signed into law in December 2022, and bans US government employees from downloading TikTok on official government-issued devices. She also stated that the US does not seek “winner-take-all” competition with China, and emphasized that “We do not seek to decouple our economy from China’s. This reflects the overall recovery of domestic and international travel that has been recorded at the beginning of 2023. Possible topics of discussion during the potential visit include plans for China to reduce methane emissions. Although airlines are now permitted to operate more flight routes, it is not guaranteed that they will be able to operate at full capacity, as there are several other factors keeping flight numbers down.
(By some measures, it is the largest.) Hundreds of millions of people have escaped extreme poverty as a result of this growth. The sanctions announcement was made during a visit by the US State Secretary Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to Japan and South Korea. The seven entities are Tianjin Phytium Information Technology, Shanghai High-Performance Integrated Circuit Design Center, Sunway Microelectronics, the National Supercomputing Center Jinan, the National Supercomputing Center Shenzhen, the National Supercomputing Center Wuxi, and the National Supercomputing Center Zhengzhou. The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved the Strategic Competition Act of 2021, signaling bipartisan consensus on orienting US policy towards being more aggressive in efforts to counter China. The bill would invest more than US$250 billion into American semiconductor manufacturing, boosting the National Science Foundation, creating regional technology hubs, and spurring 5G innovation. In turn, Yang urged the US to abide by the one-China principle, according to a statement from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Eight Chinese technology entities were added to the list for alleged “quantum computing efforts that support military applications”. Some other Chinese firms were added for their contributions to “Pakistan’s unsafeguarded nuclear activities or ballistic missile program”. The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has labeled SenseTime Group Limited, a Chinese AI company specialized in facial recognition software, best trailing stop ea as a Chinese “Military-Industrial Complex Company” and has banned American investors from buying and selling its shares.
Prior to the meeting, Trump had threatened a 100 percent overall import tax in response to China’s recent export restrictions that created shortages in global supply chains. Statements released by both sides indicate that the two presidents discussed a wide range of issues, including their complex bilateral relations, their stances on Taiwan, and views on health security, climate crisis, global energy supplies, and key regional challenges in North Korea, Afghanistan, and Iran. The two also discussed a variety of global security and regional issues, including the Russia-Ukraine war, the Middle East, the DPRK, the South China Sea, Burma, and cross-strait relations. Both sides stated that the two heads of state will “maintain regular contact”, and committed to promoting further exchanges in strategic areas, including diplomacy, military, economy, finance, business, and climate change. Both sides agreed to maintain open lines of communication in a range of fields, including counter-narcotics, foreign policy, Asia-Pacific affairs, maritime affairs, artificial intelligence, and military-to-military dialogue. Xi and Biden held “candid and constructive” discussions in their first direct communication since their meeting in California in November 2023.
The two working groups are the latest effort made by China and the US to improve ties and enhance bilateral cooperation on important issues. However, it is unclear whether they will be able to make breakthroughs on matters like export controls. Joining the delegation are several US officials, including acting deputy under-secretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs at the USDA Jason Hafemeister and senior adviser for North Asia at the USDA Wade Sheppard. The US has historically not sent government officials to the CIIE, making their attendance this year all the more significant. According to a brief statement from the Chinese Ministry of Environment and Ecology (MEE), the two sides conducted a “a comprehensive and in-depth exchange of views, and the meeting “reached positive results on carrying out bilateral cooperation and actions on climate change and jointly promoting the success of COP28”.
“While Xi is under pressure to act, the external risks are magnified because so far, he has suffered few consequences from taking actions on issues his predecessors would likely never have gambled on,” they write. This Council report by CFR’s Manak and Helena Kopans-Johnson details the division of responsibilities between U.S. In this report by the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace, researchers examine the path toward U.S.-China relations coexisting in the coming decade.