BEIJING: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen arrived in Beijing on Thursday for meetings with Chinese leaders as part of efforts to revive relations that are strained by disputes about security, technology and other irritants.
Yellen planned to focus on stabilizing the global economy and challenging Chinese support of Russia during its invasion of Ukraine, Treasury officials in Washington told reporters ahead of the trip.
The secretary was due to meet with Chinese officials, American businesspeople and members of the public, according to Treasury officials. They gave no details, but said Yellen wouldn’t meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Yellen follows Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met Xi last month in the highest-level US visit to Beijing in five years. The two agreed to stabilize relations but failed to agree on improving communications between their militaries.
Yellen earlier warned against economic decoupling, or disconnecting US and Chinese industry and markets. Businesspeople have warned the world might split into separate markets, slowing innovation and economic growth, as both governments tighten controls on trade in technology and other goods deemed sensitive.
Yellen said earlier the two governments “can and need to find a way to live together” in spite of their strained relations over geopolitics and economic development.
The most recent flareup came after President Joe Biden referred to Xi as dictator. The Chinese protested, but Biden said his blunt statements about China are “just not something I’m going to change very much.”
Relations have been strained by disputes over technology, security, China’s assertive policy abroad and conflicting claims to the South China Sea and other territory.
Washington has tightened restrictions imposed by Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, on Chinese access to processor chips and other US technology on security grounds.
Ties became especially testy after a Chinese surveillance balloon flew over the United States in February and was shot down.
This week, Beijing responded to US technology controls by announced unspecified curbs on exports of gallium and germanium, two metals used in making semiconductors, solar panels, missiles and radar.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visits China as part of efforts to soothe strained relations
https://arab.news/bfh66
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visits China as part of efforts to soothe strained relations
- Yellen follows Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met Xi Jinping last month in the highest-level US visit to Beijing in five years
Al-Shabab extremists are greatest threat to peace in Somalia and the region, UN experts say
- The UN Security Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to extend authorization for the African Union’s “support and stabilization” force in Somalia until Dec. 31, 2026
UNITED NATIONS: The Al-Shabab extremist group remains the greatest immediate threat to peace and stability in Somalia and the region, especially Kenya, UN experts said in a report released Wednesday.
Despite ongoing efforts by Somali and international forces to curb operations by Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab, “the group’s ability to carry out complex, asymmetric attacks in Somalia remains undiminished,” the experts said.
They said the threat comes not only from Al-Shabab’s ability to strike — including within the capital, Mogadishu, where it attempted to assassinate the president on March 18 — but from its sophisticated extortion operations, forced recruitment and effective propaganda machine.
The UN Security Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to extend authorization for the African Union’s “support and stabilization” force in Somalia until Dec. 31, 2026. The force includes 11,826 uniformed personnel, including 680 police.
The extremist group poses a significant threat to neighboring Kenya “by conducting attacks that vary from attacks with improvised explosive devices, which predominantly target security personnel, to attacks on infrastructure, kidnappings, home raids and stealing of livestock,” the experts said.
This year, Al-Shabab averaged around six attacks a month in Kenya, mostly in Mandera and Lamu counties, which border Somalia in the northeast, the panel said.
The experts said Al-Shabab’s goal remains to remove Somalia’s government, “rid the country of foreign forces and establish a Greater Somalia, joining all ethnic Somalis across east Africa under strict Islamic rule.”
The panel of experts also investigated the Islamic State’s operations in Somalia and reported that fighters were recruited from around the world to join the extremist group, the majority from east Africa. At the end of 2024, they said the group known as ISIL-Somalia had a fighting force of over 1,000, at least 60 percent of them foreign fighters.
“Although small in terms of numbers and financial resources compared with Al-Shabab, the group’s expansion constituted a significant threat to peace and security in Somalia and the broader region,” the panel said.
