Yellen finds her voice in China


US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen departed Beijing on Sunday after several days of talks with Chinese officials that she called “direct, substantive and productive.”

Yellen’s visit comes as the Biden Administration struggles to balance its economic policy toward China rhetorically:

  • 💔 China hawks have called for ‘decoupling’ – a total divorce from Chinese supply chains
  • 🤨 Others, including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, have described the US approach as ‘de-risking’ the US economy’s exposure to China
  • 🗺️ But Yellen, who warned earlier this year that “a full separation of our economies would be disastrous for both countries,” used a third d-word during her trip, saying the US wants to “diversify its critical supply chains.

Intrigue’s take: From a Chinese perspective, it probably doesn’t matter which word the US chooses if it continues to impose trade tariffs and technology bans against China and goes through with plans to introduce new restrictions on American investment in Chinese defence technology.

The good news is that Yellen spent more than 10 hours in meetings getting to know China’s new economic leaders.

And it seems she made quite an impression; the Global Times (the Chinese Communist Party’s famously strident tabloid) reported that Chinese Premier Li Qiang said, “China-US ties can see ‘rainbows’ after a round of ‘wind and rain’”.

Also worth noting:

Latest Author Articles
Can the US actually destroy Iran’s Fordow base?

Now that the US president has indicated he’ll allow another two weeks for negotiations with Iran to continue, we can also reflect a little more on some of the underlying assumptions at play: eg, can the US actually punch through Iran’s Fordow mountain? So with thanks to an anonymous Intriguer, we connected with one of […]

20 June, 2025
Israel strikes Iran

Thought you could have a nice, relaxed, geopolitics-free weekend? Perhaps pop down to Home Depot if you get time? Wrong.  Following a day of mysterious security alerts for US and Israeli diplomats in the Middle East (suggesting they had intel something was up), Israel has now struck targets in Iran. The dust is still settling, […]

13 June, 2025
The Israel-Hamas ceasefire wobbles

It’s been three weeks since Israel and Hamas signed a deal that put a tentative end to their ~16 months of devastating conflict.  The pact ramped up the flow of aid into the strip and enabled the return of an initial 16 Israeli hostages held by Hamas and more than 730 Palestinian prisoners in Israel. […]

14 February, 2025
Did the US just ditch Ukraine?

As world leaders, chief diplomats, and defence leaders alike board their private jets to Munich today, just know that their teams are re-writing every briefing note and messaging strategy in the wake of Washington’s mic drop only hours ago.  Here’s what happened.  Speaking first from Brussels at the UK-chaired Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting, the […]

13 February, 2025