US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner visits China today as the two sides strive to resolve tensions in their relationship, notably over the value of the yuan.
The visit comes just days before Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) heads to Washington for an international summit on nuclear security — an indication that the two countries are trying to get their relationship back on track.
Geithner will hold talks with Vice Premier Wang Qishan (王岐山), who is in charge of economic and financial issues. He also heads the Chinese side of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue with the US, the next round of which takes place next month.
“This is a visit that we just confirmed yesterday,” a spokesman for the US embassy in Beijing, Richard Buangan, said yesterday.
In New Delhi, where Geithner was wrapping up a visit to India, his spokesman Andrew Williams said the US Treasury secretary and Wang had been “working together to find an opportunity to meet in person for some time.”
Geithner was to spend yesterday night in Hong Kong before heading to Beijing today, he said.
The US embassy spokesman said the talks would be closed to the media.
US officials declined to comment on a possible agenda.
The US Treasury at the weekend announced the delay of a report expected in middle of this month that could be critical of China.
Any decision to revalue the yuan “is China’s choice, this is their judgment to make,” Geithner said in India on Tuesday.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group