Washington played underhand tricks at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting. It tried to push the meeting into issuing a communiqué targeting China. It came away empty-handed.
But Washington did not let the matter rest. On September 1, acting in its capacity as rotating chair, it unilaterally released a chair's statement. The document is widely seen as dripping with insinuations aimed at Beijing. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson hit back strongly on September 2, expressing regret that the meeting had failed to issue a communiqué.
Yuyuan Tantian, a social media account under CCTV, followed up with an analysis. It noted that the US statement made a point of spelling out: "The statement was agreed by all G20 members present except China, which objected to paragraphs 4, 10, 11, and 13." That line was seized upon to hype the narrative that "China refused to cooperate."
For a country to single out another member by name at an international multilateral meeting on its own home turf is a highly unusual move. A host is supposed to bridge differences and safeguard an atmosphere of cooperation. Instead, Washington aired the divisions in public, which amounts to announcing to the world that the very meeting it hosted had failed.
Sources close to the negotiations believe Washington's maneuver undermines the bigger picture of this year's multilateral agenda. Both the G20 and APEC are important platforms for global economic governance, and this year happens to be the year in which China and the United States each serve as host of one of the two organizations. By staging petty tricks at the G20 venue, Washington damages the credibility of the G20 and poisons the atmosphere for China-US cooperation.
Wash Hands, Shift Blame
Yuyuan Tantian points out that the US statement conceals four sinister ploys.
Ploy one: washing its hands of all responsibility. Paragraph 4 of the US statement says the global economy has remained resilient in the face of multiple shocks, including wars and conflicts. It stresses that value chains for energy, food, fertilizer and critical minerals must keep running smoothly.
In Yuyuan Tantian's reading, the subtext is a demand that all countries jointly manage these problems. Yet the statement studiously avoids mentioning exactly who launched the wars that threw energy markets into turmoil, or who erected chip export restrictions.
What concerns Beijing is whether Washington's description of the global economic situation is objective and comprehensive. One of the world economy's most prominent challenges today is precisely the damage that tariffs and restrictive measures do to the multilateral trading system.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects global inflation to climb from 4.1% last year to 4.7% in 2026, with geopolitical conflict one of the drivers. As Yuyuan Tantian sees it, Washington puts issues such as energy and fertilizer on the table yet never mentions the shocks inflicted by its own policies, much like "an arsonist standing at the scene of the blaze, selling firefighting supplies."
On top of that, reform of the global financial architecture, free trade, the role of the World Trade Organization and the elimination of protectionism were all left out of the statement.
Ploy two: shoving the blame onto China. Paragraph 10 of the US statement says countries should eliminate "non-market policies and practices" that exacerbate economic imbalances. In particular, countries with persistent and excessive external surpluses should remove the distortions that constrain domestic demand and breed an overreliance on exports.
Enlist, Then Demand Payment
Yuyuan Tantian argues that although this passage never names China, it is in fact aimed at the "overcapacity" narrative recently hyped up against the country.
The G20 set up a study group on global imbalances this year. Discussions among the parties concluded that the causes of economic imbalances are complex, spanning the international division of labor, demographics, finance, the dominance of the US dollar and capital accounts. Yet Washington skipped over these professional discussions. It kept only the "non-market" attribution, a label on which no consensus has been reached, in an attempt to pin the responsibility on China.
Ploy three: ordering international organizations into action. Paragraph 11 of the US statement asks the IMF and the OECD to refine their imbalance analysis data. In particular, it urges them to strengthen data coverage of "non-market policies and practices." Yuyuan Tantian points out that the G20 has never produced a clear definition of "non-market policies and practices." Yet Washington is asking international organizations to supply data for a label that commands no consensus. In substance, this piles up evidence for its narrative targeting China.
Ploy four: telling China to write down debts. Paragraph 13 of the US statement says relevant stakeholders, including official creditors, should be encouraged to make appropriate contributions toward the debts of developing countries. Yuyuan Tantian argues that Washington is in effect demanding that official bilateral creditors, China among them, shoulder more of the burden and provide debt relief to developing countries.
Yet official bilateral creditors account for only about 15% of developing countries' debt. The private sector and multilateral institutions are the principal creditors.
Washington deliberately demands "appropriate contributions" from official bilateral creditors. At the same time, it says nothing about America's own dwindling development aid, nor does it ask the US-led financial institutions to cut debt. This shows that its goal is not genuinely to resolve the debt problem. The goal is to concentrate the pressure on China.
China Will Fight to the End
After reading Yuyuan Tantian's analysis, the whole affair can be summed up like this:
First, the United States tabled a proposed G20 joint communiqué on trade imbalances targeting China. It knew full well that China would object and that the proposal stood no chance of passing. But the real aim was to blow the issue up in public and keep hammering away at China's so-called trade imbalances. Washington even enlisted international organizations to make moves on its behalf, demanding that China fix problems of America's own making.
Second, China brought in Yuyuan Tantian to blow the lid off the scheme. The signal: it will fight the United States to the very end.
Lo Wing-hung
Bastille Commentary
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