With China, one cold and one hot. This is the watchword of Washington's policy towards a power too great to confront head-on and too aggressive to be intimidated by its provocations. It is assumed that the strategy should also be iron fist with silk glove. But Joe Biden's government, and especially the president himself, do not always comply.
Now, after the surreal crisis of the Chinese balloon that flew over the USA a few days in February, and in the midst of very real tensions over Taiwan, it is time to have contemplations: without being intimidated by Beijing, but keeping the forms and a minimum dialogue to avoid direct conflict.
As part of this attempt to calm the waters, the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, Janet Yellen, will travel to the Chinese capital on Thursday, until Sunday. He will do so a couple of weeks after the visit to Beijing by the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, which had a positive effect, but too short, given that the next day President Joe Biden canceled it with a qualifying blow of "dictator" his counterpart, Xi Jinping.
It was when, at an event in California, the US president recalled the balloon incident and said that the worst thing for the Chinese leader was that the issue caught him unawares. "He (Xi) didn't know the balloon was there," Biden said, adding that "there is no greater shame for a dictator to not know something has happened."
The Treasury secretary had planned to go to China in April, but the confrontation over what Washington described from the beginning as "the Chinese spy balloon" was very recent.
Yellen rejects a "disconnection" or total break in the trade relationship with China. "It would be disastrous for both economies and for the rest of the world", he said precisely in April. "The United States and China must find a way to live together and share global prosperity," he concluded.
But the Biden administration has made clear its determination to fight the "unfair" trade policies of its great rival, and also its intention to drastically reduce its technological dependence on the US and to curb investments by US companies which can provide advantages to Beijing in the bilateral race.
In fact, Biden is preparing for the end of July or August a possible executive order that would tighten the requirements for investing in dollars in China; especially with regard to operations that could directly or indirectly improve the military capabilities of the Asian power.
During this week's trip, it is expected that Yellen will not only address trade issues, but also that of a hypothetical and fearsome Chinese support for Russia in its war against Ukraine, given the "alliance without limits" that the two countries boast.
Biden met with Xi Jinping in November, during the G-20 summit in Indonesia.
The US president recently said that he hopes to hold another meeting with the Chinese president "at some point" not too far off to, however, "keep communication open" in order to avert the risk of a one-way confrontation. possible: diplomacy.
