WASHINGTON — Almost at the same time that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pressed the Group of 20 to reduce imports of Chinese goods, Chinese President Xi Jinping met Russian President Vladimir Putin and said he wants to "strengthen the capacity to advance a multipolar world." With a U.S.-China summit set for the 24th in Washington, D.C., the new Cold War alignment among the United States, China and Russia is hardening further.
Bessent told a G20 finance ministers' meeting that opened in Asheville, North Carolina, that "we face persistent global imbalances that hold back prosperity," Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported on Aug. 31. He did not name China directly, but said distorted policies that prioritize a country's own exports have harmed the economies of many nations gathered at the meeting, and that G20 members broadly agreed that resolving excessive imbalances serves the interests of both surplus and deficit countries.
Bessent had referred to China directly in an interview with Reuters the previous day. He said the volume of exports pouring out of China is not sustainable and signaled that he would urge the G20 to review its trade terms with China as a way to reduce global imbalances. Bessent said it is up to other countries to provide incentives for China to shift away from exports and strengthen its chronically weak domestic demand, stressing that the rest of the world outside the United States will have to reexamine its trade terms with Beijing.
Washington has long argued that low-priced goods backed by Chinese government subsidies flood global markets, squeezing out companies in other countries and distorting markets. It has urged China to shift its economic structure from exports toward domestic demand and has imposed steep tariffs on Chinese goods. But as China redirected shipments to Europe and Latin America to avoid those tariffs, the United States appears to have turned to calling for coordination at the G20 level.
At the same time, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit was held in Kyrgyzstan. Meeting Putin for the first time in three months on the sidelines of the SCO gathering, Xi said he wants to "lead reform of global governance while strengthening the capacity to advance an equal and orderly multipolar world." The remarks are read as an intent to change the U.S.-led global order and move beyond a unipolar system centered on the United States.
The SCMP said Bessent raised concerns about China's "excessive imbalances" just weeks before a crucial U.S.-China summit. French broadcaster France 24 said of the SCO summit that the regional bloc was pushing back against U.S. hegemony.
