He, Yellen to meet

Staff reporter and Reuters

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng will meet US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in San Francisco this week to try to deepen a fledgling economic dialogue between the world's two largest economies ahead of a US-hosted summit of Pacific Rim leaders.

He and Yellen will have meetings on Thursday and Friday before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit which starts on Saturday.

The talks are expected to help further stabilize the Sino-US economic relationship and make progress on key economic issues, said the US Treasury Department.

It follows the first meeting of the China-US Economic Working Group via video link two weeks ago.

The US visit was announced as He, a top aide of President Xi Jinping, was appointed head of the office of the Central Financial Commission, which is responsible for running day-to-day affairs of a new regulator tasked with overseeing a vast financial sector.

He was also appointed party chief of a separate Central Financial Work Commission, which was set up to strengthen the role of the party in China's overall financial system.

In addition, He will replace Liu He as the director of a key ruling Communist Party economic body, the Central Finance and Economic Affairs Commission.

The appointments, announced by the central bank's Financial News publication, underscore how the ruling Communist Party has taken direct control of supervising the financial sector.

The new roles mean He will tackle local government debt and the downturn in the property sector, two crises that threaten the financial stability and long-term growth of the world's second-largest economy.

He has been playing a prominent role in handling financial, economic and trade issues since being named a vice premier during a cabinet reshuffle in March.

Meanwhile, China recorded its first-ever quarterly deficit in foreign direct investment, according to balance of payments data, underscoring Beijing's challenge in wooing overseas firms in the wake of a "de-risking" move by Western governments.

Direct investment liabilities - a measure of FDI - were at a deficit of US$11.8 billion (HK$92.04 billion) during the July-September period, according to preliminary data of China's balance of payments released late on Friday.