Daily Management Review

China Appoints World Bank’s Representative As Finance Ministry’s Face


06/27/2020


When “bilateral tensions” between Washington and Beijing seems to be “at their worst in decade” and both the countries arrive at their “Phase 1 agreement” for truce, while China appoints a new face in Finance Ministry. Is it an attempt to avoid decoupling?



China introduces a new face in its “trade negotiation team” as it appoints World Bank’s Chief representative for heading the “international cooperation department” of the Finance Ministry. The said news was confirmed by three sources who posses “direct knowledge of the matter”, reported Reuters.
 
Yang Yingming has held the post of the Chinese executive director in Washington’s World Bank from the year of 2016. Now Yang will be returning to the Finance Department post the truce between Washington and Beijing wherein both the side signed on a “Phase 1 agreement” to put an end to their months long “bitter trade war”. However, “bilateral tensions” still seem to be “at their worst in decades”.
 
Yang, on the other hand, can be counted among the upcoming “Chinese economic policymakers” who have “international experience” to offer. Some of Yang’s colleagues in Washington have recently heard from Yang that he would be going back to China to coordinate G-20 and “Sino-U.S. trade talks”. Nevertheless, the sources wanted to remain anonymous.
 
However, Reuters did not receive any immediate response from Yang as well as “the World Bank’s Beijing office”. Yang speaks fluently in English and possesses an open mind and a noticeable sense of humour. Giving background information about Yang, Reuters added:
“Yang, who studied English literature at Beijing Foreign Studies University and development economics at the University of Manchester in Britain, was also executive director for China at the Asian Development Bank until 2012, before moving to the finance ministry”.
 
Singapore’s associate professor at Nanyang Technological University’s “S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies”, Li Mingjiang is of the opinion that this appointment is an affirmation of Beijing keenness of maintaining its ties with the U.S. and preventing it from getting worse. However, there have been “limited high-level engagement” between Washington and Beijing as they seem to settle down on multiple “friction points” ranging from “coronavirus to Hong Kong”. And Li added:
“Both sides still want to face their problems and resolve them through negotiation, instead of heading towards decoupling”.
 
 
References:
reuters.com