This is who Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will meet in China

BEIJING – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was expected to arrive in China on Thursday ahead of four full days of meetings with Chinese officials.

It is her second trip to the country since the summer, as the US and China try to improve high-level communications in an otherwise strained relationship. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will also visit China again later this year.

“I think our expectation is that we will continue to have an ongoing and deepening dialogue at senior levels, and increasingly at all levels. We have gone on too long with too little communication, and misunderstandings have arisen,” Yellen told reporters ahead of her arrival in China.

Her trip will cover the southern city of Guangzhou – the capital of China’s export-heavy Guangdong province – and the national capital Beijing, according to a press release.

Here is her full meeting schedule:

• Friday April 5 – meeting with Vice Prime Minister He Lifeng, Governor of Guangdong Wang Weizhong, economic experts and AmCham China business representatives
• Saturday April 6 – continues meetings with Deputy Prime Minister He Lifeng
• Sunday April 7 – meeting with Prime Minister Li Qiang, Finance Minister Lan Fo’an, Beijing Mayor Yin Yong, leading Chinese economists and students and professors from Beijing University
• Monday April 8 – meeting with former Vice Premier Liu He, Governor of the People’s Bank of China Pan Gongsheng

According to the Treasury Department, Yellen will “discuss unfair trade practices and highlight the global economic impact of China’s industrial overcapacity.”

China has faced increasing global criticism over how the country’s emphasis on building up its manufacturing capabilities, including the use of subsidies and policy support to do so, has helped Chinese companies sell products such as solar panels at much lower prices than manufacturers in other countries. .

In March, Jens Eskelund, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce, said trade tensions between the EU and China were likely to escalate as a result.

According to Wind Information, Guangdong is by far the largest province in China in terms of export value.

The province exported nearly 5.4 trillion yuan ($750 billion) of manufactured products last year, with equipment accounting for two-thirds, said Tu Gaokun, director of Guangdong’s industry and information technology department.

He told reporters last week that the province is “committed” to improving productivity, noting how it plans to build sectors such as new energy storage, biomanufacturing and commercial aviation.

During her meetings in China, Yellen will also “work to expand bilateral cooperation in countering illicit financing, which could make important progress in joint efforts against criminal activities such as drug trafficking and fraud,” the Treasury Department said.

It added that Yellen would discuss work to strengthen financial stability, tackle climate change and resolve debt burdens in developing countries.

The trip marks Yellen’s third meeting with Deputy Prime Minister He Lifeng, who is also Finance Minister will meet later this month during the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group in Washington, DC

He Lifeng is also director of the Office of the Central Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs, a position previously held by Liu.