The Chinese embassy in Zambia has blasted the United States over the U.S. debt ceiling and the “extraordinary measures” that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has implemented to stave off default on U.S. debt. Yellen said Monday that Zambia’s debt restructuring is very important, but Zambia sees it differently. The embassy responded by condemning Yellen’s remarks, stressing that the U.S. has a “catastrophic debt problem.”
Last week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen urged Congress to raise government spending limits or face a debt default. She also noted that the Treasury would have to take ” 14} extraordinary measures ” 15} to hold down the debt until early June 2023. According to federal financial data, the national debt surpassed $31.4 trillionearlier this week. Yellen also commented on Zambia on Monday after meeting with Chinese officials in Zurich the week before.
“I specifically raised the issue of Zambia [with Chinese officials] and asked for their cooperation to reach a quick resolution. And our discussions were constructive,” Yellen was quoted as saying in areportpublished by Reuters. Meanwhile, Zambian Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said that the meeting between Yellen and the Chinese authorities did not reach any conclusions regarding the debt restructuring process. The Chinese embassy in Zambia then directly condemned the issue in response to Yellen’s commentsand said that the U.S. needs to resolve its own debt problems
A Zambian official in Lusaka wrote, “The greatest contribution the United States can make to the debt problem abroad is to act on the basis of responsible monetary policy, address its own debt problem, and stop obstructing active efforts by other sovereign nations to resolve their debt problems.” The Chinese Embassy in Lusaka further added,:
Assuming that Secretary Yellen’s statements on debt are correct, the best prospect for non-US debt problems would be for the US Treasury to solve the US’s own domestic debt problems, given how much she knows about the facts, her professional competence, and her team’s ability to execute.
The criticism of the Chinese Embassy highlights a fundamental communication problem that China and the U.S. have had for years: in May 2022, Chinese experts urged the leaders of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) to stop relying on the U.S. dollar In August 2022, China was not pleased with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. The following month, the CCP-backed Huangyu Times published an editorial arguing that a strong dollar might be “the beginning of another nightmare” for other countries.
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