U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Visits China
United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen arrived in China yesterday for a four-day visit to improve relations.
Tensions have surged between the two economic superpowers in recent years, as disagreements on trade, the South China Sea and Taiwan worsen.
Yellen’s trip follows U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit last month, which mainly focused on China’s claims to Taiwan. Talks ended with Chinese diplomat Wang Yi stating that “China has no room to compromise or concede” on Taiwan.
Trade-focused objectives: While Blinken’s visit gravitated toward the Taiwan issue, Yellen is focusing on economic disagreements. She aims to protest China’s recent export controls on metals and defend U.S. trade curbs.
China imposed export curbs on two metals on Monday, which will take effect on August 1. These metals (gallium and germanium) are vital components for electric vehicles, renewable energy, semiconductors and military technology. China produces 60 percent of the world’s germanium and 80 percent of the world’s gallium. Last year, the U.S. imported $60 million worth of germanium and over $220 million worth of gallium metal and gallium arsenide. The American tech industry relies heavily on importing these metals.
China’s decision to impose these export curbs is in retaliation of U.S. export restrictions placed on China in October. This trade curb limited China’s access to advanced semiconductors and the tools to make them, slowing their technological advancement.
China announcing export controls days before the U.S. Treasury secretary visited is likely not an accident. Just like China had “no room to compromise” on Taiwan, it will show the same unrelenting aggression in its trade war with the U.S.
Trade war: Economic tensions between the U.S. and China will continue to worsen. These export restrictions are part of a trade war prophesied in Isaiah 23. This chapter warns of an end-time trade-axis that includes China and competes with America and Britain.
As this “mart of nations” unites, America and Britain will be “literally besieged—economically frozen out of world trade,” explains Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry in Ezekiel—The End-Time Prophet.
Mr. Flurry writes that this economic siege “leads to an attack that will leave cities without inhabitant!”
Continue to watch the deteriorating economic ties between China and the U.S. These trade wars are prophesied to launch the world into the most terrifying collision mankind has ever witnessed. Read “Trade Wars Have Begun” to prove this for yourself.
