Diplomacy US, China officials conclude meeting on financial issues

US and Chinese officials have completed the third meeting of a working group established to cooperate on financial issues, in a step that continues the trend set by the two powers last November to ease tensions.

Officials from the U.S. Department of the Treasury met with counterparts in the People’s Bank of China to discuss issues ranging from financial stability to countering money laundering. The delegation also met with Vice Premier He Lifeng while they were in China, according to a statement from the Treasury Department over the weekend (Macau time).

The group also indicated that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen would return to China for a visit at some point in the future. She was previously there in July.

In November, Yellen met with He in San Francisco. Their two-day meeting was seen as paving the way for the later meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping.

The two sides in November had agreed to resume cooperation on issues such as curbing fentanyl’s spread, as well as military-to-military communication. While the meeting kept the relationship from getting any worse, it failed to resolve any of the major differences between the two countries.

There have been longstanding economic issues between China and the U.S. ever since former President Donald Trump launched a trade war, setting high taxes on a number of Chinese goods. MDT/AP