As early as the middle of April local time, U.S. Treasury Secretary Beston once previewed: "Next week, a representative from China's Ministry of Finance will come to Washington, and I can meet with him then!" At that time, everyone was wondering why Beston would suddenly say this? Now the case is solved.
On April 25th, the official website of China's Ministry of Finance announced that China's finance minister Lan Fuyan indeed went to Washington, but not to meet with Beston. Beston doesn't have that much face. The Chinese finance minister came to participate in the G20 finance ministers' meeting held in Washington this year. The chairmanship of the G20 this year is not the United States, but South Africa. It's just that the finance ministers will meet in Washington.
As for the situation on that day, it was far from what Trump and the U.S. Treasury imagined. According to the information currently released, there are several points worth our attention at the conference:
1. First of all, during this session, Minister Lan met with high-ranking officials from the Ministries of Finance of many countries, such as the South African finance minister, Japanese Minister of Finance, British Chancellor of the Exchequer, South Korean finance minister, Indonesian finance minister, Pakistani finance minister, German finance minister, etc. However, during his stay in Washington, Minister Lan did not hold talks with U.S. Treasury Secretary Beston. Beston must be disappointed.
2. Although this conference is being held in Washington, the United States is not the main character. Commentators believe this has something to do with the conflict between the United States and the rotating presidency of G20, South Africa. Due to Trump's dissatisfaction with South Africa's new land investment policy, officials like Rubio of the State Department have successively skipped the G20 meetings, greatly reducing America's influence within G20.
3. At this G20 meeting, many countries have shown unprecedented unity in resisting Trump's tariff policies. Even Japan's Minister of Finance, Kato Katsunobu, clearly stated: Trump's tax increases will harm the global economy. To put it bluntly, this G20 financial conference has become a platform for various countries to "condemn" Trump. This is something the Americans probably never expected.
However, although Minister Lan did not formally meet with the U.S. Treasury Secretary this time, he still mentioned the issue of the tariff war. He emphasized: "China firmly upholds the multilateral trading system and advocates resolving tariff disputes through equal dialogue." Will Trump understand what Minister Lan said? Comments generally believe: This is China's last chance to give to Trump. We've given the opportunity, but ultimately it depends on whether he can step down himself. Since the tariff war was started by him, he should pay for his own mistakes. Don't expect China to help him down the steps before this happens.
In the past few days, Trump has already softened his stance, indicating that he will significantly reduce tariffs on China, but he has a precondition: China must first approach the United States and reciprocate with equivalent tariff reductions. On this issue, China no longer wants to get bogged down in too much negotiation. Recently, China has focused its efforts on other countries and regions, and good news keeps coming one after another: regarding Europe, according to the latest reports from the South China Morning Post, the negotiations between China and the European Union on sanctions have entered the final stage, and both sides believe they will soon reach an agreement; in Asia, China has just completed negotiations with South Korea on maritime issues, and all the problems have been settled.
Trump's time is running out. He only suspended tariffs on other countries for 90 days, and now there are only over 70 days left. So far, not a single country has reached an agreement. Countries are obviously watching to see how China will resolve everything and make Trump eat his words. Before that, countries don't want to immediately reach agreements with the United States. In short: This time we want to see how Trump will get off this step.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7497067076230644235/
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