US and China to Establish Regular Economic Dialogue

‘It is vital that we talk, particularly when we disagree,’ says Treasury Secretary Yellen.

The United States has launched two working groups with China on economic and financial issues to provide a regular policy communication forum between the world’s two largest economies.

The Department of the Treasury and China’s Ministry of Finance will assume the oversight role for the Economic Working Group, while the People’s Bank of China will be the Treasury’s counterpart for the Financial Working Group.

They will “meet on a regular cadence” and report to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng, according to a Treasury statement released on Sept. 22.

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The groups aim to “provide ongoing structured channels for frank and substantive discussions on economic and financial policy matters, as well as an exchange of information on macroeconomic and financial developments,” the press release said.

‘An Important Step Forward’

The Treasury chief on social media platform X described the measure as “an important step forward in our bilateral relationship and builds on my visit to Beijing in July.”

During the four-day China trip, the second of four from senior Biden officials in months, Ms. Yellen met with Premier Li Qiang, the Chinese vice premier, central bank Governor Yi Gang, Party Secretary Pan Gongsheng, and former Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, but without reaching any breakthroughs.

Ms. Yellen said that the working groups will serve as important channels to convey “America’s interests and concerns, promote a healthy economic competition between our two countries with a level playing field for American workers and businesses, and advance cooperation on global challenges.”

“It is vital that we talk, particularly when we disagree,” she wrote.

China’s Ministry of Finance also released a brief statement announcing the groups’ creation, saying the move was to “follow through on the important common understandings reached between the presidents of the two countries at their meeting in Bali” last year.

Dialogues and engagement were a decades-long U.S. approach with China until the Trump administration, which adopted a tough-on-China stance. Nor is working groups with China a new concept. During the Bush administration, Reps. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) and Darin LaHood (R-Ill) set up a working group in 2005 linking U.S. lawmakers with Chinese leaders. The Treasury and State Department had held annual dialogue meetings with China for a decade until 2017 after President Donald Trump came into office.