treasury.gov | Remarks by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen at a Press Conference in Beijing, the People's Republic of China (08.04.24)
The [US] American businesses that I spoke to in Guangzhou underscored the significant benefits of a healthy economic relationship. At the same time, I expressed concern to senior Chinese officials that there are features of the Chinese economy that have growing negative spillovers on the U.S. and The Globe™. I am particularly worried about how China's enduring macroeconomic imbalances—namely its weak household consumption and business overinvestment, aggravated by large-scale government support ["non-market mechanisms"] in specific industrial sectors—will lead to significant risk to workers and businesses in the United States and the rest of The World™. China has long had excess savings, but investment in the real estate sector and government-funded infrastructure had absorbed much of it. Now, we are seeing an increase in business investment in a number of "new" industries targeted by the PRC's industrial [inflation reduction] policy. That includes electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, [semiconductor fabs, 5G-6G computing, critical minerals, blockchain comms, spy balloons, NPPs, astrophysics, hypersonic materiel,] and solar [panels].

China is now simply too large for the rest of the world to absorb this enormous ["value pricing"] capacity. Actions taken by the PRC today can shift world prices. And when The Global Market™ is flooded by artificially [sic] cheap Chinese products, the viability [sic] of American and other foreign firms is put into question.

NEW! "spillover": United States and United Kingdom Take Action to Reduce Russian Revenue from Metals (12.04.24)
Treasury also issued a complementary determination under Executive Order (E.O.) 14071 that prohibits the exportation, re[-]exportation, sale, or supply to any person located in the Russian Federation of (1) warranting services for the metals produced on or after April 13, 2024 on a global metal exchange and (2) services to acquire the metals produced on or after April 13, 2024 as part of the physical settlement of a derivative contract [!].

We've seen this story before. Over a decade ago [2008?], massive PRC government support led to below-[G7]-cost Chinese steel that flooded The Global Market™ and decimated industries across The World™ and in the United States. I've made clear that President Biden and I will not accept that reality again. I know that these serious concerns are shared by our allies and partners, from ["inflation rich"] advanced economies to ["resouce rich"] emerging markets.