BEIJING: Chinese experts remain cautious over the relatively tough policy stances toward China aired by several of incoming US President Joe Biden’s cabinet minister nominees, saying that the harsh rhetoric on trade and other issues will persist under the new US administration, but specific trade measures against China will likely return to a certain degree of normalcy before Donald Trump’s presidency.
In confirmation hearings at the US Senate on Tuesday, the nominees for top national security, foreign relations and economic positions struck a tough note on the new US administration’s policy toward China, with Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen vowing to use the “full array of tools” against what she described as “abusive” trade policies of China.
“We need to take on China’s abusive, unfair and illegal practices,” Yellen told US Senators, calling China the “most important strategic competitor” for the US, echoing other nominees, including Biden’s pick for the Defense Secretary and director of the National Intelligence Office.
“Such harsh rhetoric is following the old playbook. [US politicians] have been saying the same things since [Bill Clinton]’s time that they want to change China’s system,” He Weiwen, a former economic and commercial counselor at the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco and New York, told the Global Times on Wednesday. “These politicians used to play the same game.”
However, following a multi-year bruising trade and technology war by the Trump administration, in which the US Treasury Department played a major role, Yellen’s remarks were closely watched and even interpreted by some as a continuation of Trump’s tough confrontational policies.
Though Yellen did not specify what “tools” her department will deploy against China, experts said that the US Treasury Department, which ranks very high within the US government on economic issues, has several options, including imposing sanctions on foreign entities and individuals and restricting foreign investment.
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
