A senior Treasury Department official traveled to Hong Kong last week, in a sign of growing US efforts to revive engagement with China after a broader deterioration of relations between the world’s two largest economies.
(Bloomberg) — A senior Treasury Department official traveled to Hong Kong last week, in a sign of growing US efforts to revive engagement with China after a broader deterioration of relations between the world’s two largest economies.
Deputy Assistant Secretary Robert Kaproth, a career Treasury staff member, traveled to Hong Kong to meet with private and public sector contacts on macroeconomic and financial developments in Hong Kong and China, a Treasury official said.
The visit by Kaproth comes as Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Beijing later this week, becoming the most-senior US official to visit the country in five years as the US looks to ease tensions that have provoked fears of open conflict between the world’s two biggest economies.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen for months has considered a visit to Beijing — reiterating her intention as recently as last month — but continuing bilateral tensions over Taiwan, trade, conflicting claims regarding the South China Sea and the flight of a Chinese balloon over the US have left the plans unrealized.
While Yellen has said the Biden administration is prepared to accept economic costs as it seeks to protect US national security interests from threats posed by China, she has appealed to Beijing to cooperate on shared global concerns, including on climate change and macroeconomic stability.
Kaproth’s visit was reported earlier by Nikkei.
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