Hong Kong and US interest rates tipped to be on top Sino-US strategic talks table
City’s political and economic status to be among broad range of bilateral and global issues discussed at next week’s annual China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue
Hong Kong and China’s call for greater communication over the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decisions will be among the issues to be discussed in the upcoming strategic talks between Beijing and Washington.
According to several US and Chinese analysts, Hong Kong’s political and economic status will be among a broad range of bilateral and global issues to be discussed at the annual China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue scheduled to start on Monday.
Senior diplomats, led by State Councillor Yang Jiechi and US Secretary of State John Kerry, would discuss a wide range of bilateral issues, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, human rights and counterterrorism cooperation, Bonnie Glaser, a US government adviser on East Asia and a China expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said in Washington at an earlier forum.
Basically they will exchange views, which is unlikely to make much impact on finding a solution to problems facing Hong Kong at the moment
Basically they will exchange views, which is unlikely to make much impact on finding a solution to problems facing Hong Kong at the moment
Susan Jakes, a senior fellow at the Asia Society’s Centre on US-China Relations, told a forum last Friday that Hong Kong’s political and economic status were among the issues for discussion at the dialogue by the world’s two biggest economies.
Mainland analysts said Hong Kong would not be high on the agenda. “There are too many [other] tough political and economic issues for Beijing and Washington to address at the two-day meeting,” Renmin University Professor Jin Canrong said.
“They may touch on Hong Kong, but it won’t be high on the agenda considering the tense South China Sea situation.”
Analysts said it was not the first time ties between Hong Kong and Beijing had been raised in the last eight years of the annual dialogue. It was one of the thorny issues for both sides at last year’s meeting in the wake of the Occupy protests in 2014.
Jin said that while the US would continue to exert pressure on China to maintain freedoms in Hong Kong, Beijing would insist that Washington should not meddle in China’s domestic affairs.
“Basically they will exchange views, which is unlikely to make much impact on finding a solution to problems facing Hong Kong at the moment,” he said.
Meanwhile, Vice-Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said on Thursday the US Federal Reserve should communicate better with China and financial markets on its interest rate decisions.
“It’s up to the Federal Reserve to make ultimate monetary policy decisions, but we welcome the Fed to strengthen policy communication with China and strengthen communication with the international financial market,” Zhu said at a forum in Beijing ahead of the annual dialogue.
Global market attention was focused on whether the Fed would raise interest rates at either its June or July policy meetings, he said.
Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen said last week the institution should raise interest rates “in the coming months” if the economy picked up as expected and jobs continued to be generated.
China and the United States should open their markets to each other and increase policy coordination and cooperation, Zhu said.
The US Treasury would also press China to continue moving towards a market-determined exchange rate, reduce excess industrial capacity and make reforms that boost domestic consumption, a senior Treasury official said on Wednesday.
Also speaking at the forum in Beijing, Vice-Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang said the US should not decide its South China Sea policy based on what its allies thought.
“So we hope the US can stick to its promises and not choose sides, but can set its position based on the rights and wrongs of the case rather than whether somebody is an ally,” Zheng said.
At the upcoming talks, State Councillor Yang was likely to demand the US “stop provocative acts targeted at China’s sovereignty and security interests”, Zheng added.
Other issues including North Korea, Taiwan, Sino-US joint efforts to counter Islamic State and peacekeeping in the Middle East will also be discussed.
Additional reporting by Catherine Wong and Reuters
