Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will meet Wednesday with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He to discuss how recent political developments affect the global economy, Politico reported.
The meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, will be Liu and the treasury secretary's first face-to-face talk since Joe Biden became president in 2021 and follows three prior virtual discussions.
It also comes ahead of Yellen's planned travels to Senegal, Zambia, and South Africa, where the Biden administration official will reportedly emphasize China's deepening economic entrenchments.
Last May, Yellen delivered a speech at the Brussels Economic Forum insisting that the free world has "a common interest in incentivizing China to refrain from economic practices that have disadvantaged all of us."
"These practices range from those affecting trade and investment to development and climate policies to approaches to provide debt relief to countries facing unsustainable debt burdens," she said at the time.
While the African advances will be a likely point of discussion between Liu and Yellen, China's sympathetic posture towards the Russian invasion of Ukraine should also receive extensive attention.
The treasury secretary warned in October 2022 about "geopolitical coercion" by Russia and China at a Bretton Woods Committee event, highlighting the countries' use of trade as a bargaining method.
"We know the cost of Russia's weaponization of trade as a tool of geopolitical coercion, and we must mitigate similar vulnerabilities to countries like China," Yellen told the conference.
Biden had previously talked with Chinese President Xi Jinping several months ago during the G-20's summit in Bali, Indonesia. There, the two leaders reportedly agreed to increase correspondence among their senior officials.
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