James Kynge

And this took place over the weekend in Beijing.

And if you look at what Premier Li Qiang said in front of all of these assembled dignitaries in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, he said that China was committed to being a cornerstone of certainty.

and, quote, a harbor of stability in a world that is dominated by rising trade protectionism and upheavals in the rules-based international order.

He did not mention the US by name at any point,

but it was very clear that he was making a contrast between China's role and the role of the US.

He also said, talking about trade, that he wanted to optimize and balance the development of trade and expand global economic and trade ties with the rest of the world.

And to me, you know, although this was an oblique reference to the U.S., it really struck a very strong point against Washington.

The other thing I thought was really fascinating about what went on at the China Development Forum was that the governor of the central bank, Pan Gongsheng, said that he sort of took aim at the U.S.,

dollar.

And he described, without naming the U.S., he described some countries' persistent trade deficits as being the result of a, quote, international monetary system dominated by a single sovereign currency.

So basically he's saying that all of the U.S.

trade deficits are

are partly the result of the strength of the US dollar.

And he wanted to deflect criticism of China's 1.2 trillion US dollar trade surplus in doing this.

So I would say that this is a fairly blunt criticism of the US.

China still doesn't like to call the U.S.

out by name.

And I think it still wants President Trump to visit China, even after he obviously postponed the visit that had been expected to take place on April the 1st.

But certainly, I would say at the moment that China's trying to portray itself as this harbor of stability for the world as the U.S.

engages in the war in Iran and the war in Iran threatens to spread beyond Iran itself.