Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, tried to calm the waters between the US and China last month on a high stakes visit. But things only seemed to get worse. Now a fresh envoy is having another crack. Janet Yellen, the treasury secretary, is in Beijing to try and iron out differences on everything from trade disputes and microchips to Ukraine and Taiwan. There seem to have been some good murmurs from the Chinese side over Yellen’s appointment (Blinken is seen as too hawkish). But expectations should be kept low, Wendy Cutler from the Asia Society Policy Institute told the BBC. “[Yellen] is not in a position to repair ties nor respond to Chinese requests to lift export controls or tariffs.”
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