Recently, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the United States and Europe need to deal with China's "industrial overcapacity" in a "strategic and united way" to "ensure the survival and development of manufacturers on both sides of the Atlantic." Yellen told reporters during a visit to Frankfurt, Germany that the G7 finance ministers, like the United States, are concerned about China's pursuit of dominance in the clean energy industry. Yellen later spoke at the Frankfurt "Tech Zone" company and said that China's "industrial capacity" issue will be the focus of the G7 finance ministers' meeting in Stresa, Italy later this week.

Regarding the discussion of "overcapacity", Yellen can be said to have made "indispensable contributions". Last month, before and after Yellen's visit to China, this topic was heated up, and China's "new three things" exported became the focus of the United States. Recently, the US government is planning to impose a 100% tariff on China's new energy vehicles. Dealing with "overcapacity" has changed from a rhetoric to a US policy. As for why the United States is so aggressive in encircling China's new energy vehicle industry, Yellen has always emphasized that Chinese companies have received subsidies, but the Biden administration of the United States has itself introduced a series of subsidy policies, especially the 2022 "Inflation Reduction Act", which is actually an industrial subsidy policy. When the leaders of France and Germany went to Washington together, one of the topics was to discuss this, which would have a huge impact on the European industrial system. Because of this, the reporter asked Yellen whether it was because the United States was defeated in these areas that it suppressed China under the banner of so-called "overcapacity".

Yellen herself is an economist and has served as the chairman of the Federal Reserve. It seems that she is more credible to talk about an economic issue. But the problem is that Yellen is a senior official of the Biden administration. Now that the US election has entered a critical stage, both Sullivan and Yellen have to serve Biden's election. Although Yellen has always emphasized that she does not seek to "decouple" from China and strengthen exchanges, Yellen chose the automobile industry, which is not so important in the United States at present, to hype it up, mainly for votes. The geography of the US election is relatively clear. The swing states that determine the election results are Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, etc. These "rust belt states" are still more concerned about industrial issues, especially the automobile industry. Biden and Trump both regard themselves as safeguarding the interests of industrial workers, and the most straightforward language is to impose tariffs, keep other countries' products out of the United States, protect the United States' own steel and automobile industries, and find jobs for these industrial workers. Such campaign rhetoric has always existed. Obama also promised to find jobs for auto workers back then. Then Obama was elected president, and then there was nothing else. Now Biden and Trump are competing to be tough and keeping a close eye on the votes in swing states, which is also an important background for Yellen to hype "overcapacity".

As for subsidies, even Yellen herself may not believe it. Since World War II, the industrial development of the United States has been inseparable from the government. Especially under the pressure of World War II and the Cold War, the United States invested a lot of money to fund research and development. The military industry has become a pillar industry in the United States, and a series of related industries have also been derived from it. Going back to earlier, Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, proposed to protect the manufacturing industry. It can be said that Americans are better at mercantilism and industrial protection than anyone else. First, this is how the United States develops industries. Only the state officials are allowed to set fires, but the people are not allowed to light lamps. The United States subsidizes the automobile industry with strategic significance, and the development of industries in other countries is a threat to the United States; second, the Biden administration shouts the slogan of clean energy development, but now it is blocking new energy vehicles. In the final analysis, it is not that new energy vehicles are bad, but that they are not American new energy vehicles, and it is not because of overcapacity, but because the production capacity is not American.