US Assistant Secretary Stilwell: China attitude in talks in Hawaii cannot be described as forthcoming

US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David R. Stilwell recently crossed wires, via Reuters, while offering additional clues of the talks in Hawaii.

Key quotes

China's attitude in talks in Hawaii cannot be described as having been forthcoming.

Will have to see in next couple of weeks whether US-China talks were productive.

Chinese actions of late have not been really constructive, cites India, south china sea, Hong Kong, trade.

Will see in coming weeks if there is a reduction in China's aggressive behavior.

Chinese actions on trade have not lived up to billing.

US would like to find ways to cooperate with china on North Korea, also positive engagement on arms control.

US looks forward to china reconsidering national security legislation on Hong Kong.

Trade is a good acid test to see if China will be a cooperative partner.

Overall US-China relationship is tense’.

US made position known to China about what it expects on coronavirus cooperation, still insists on transparency.

China needs to allow in neutral observers for coronavirus transparency .

North Korea is an obvious potential area for cooperation with China.

China made a clear commitment to follow through on Phase one of trade agreement.

FX implications

While the news should have ideally added strength into the market’s current risk-off mood, the early Asian morning restricts the reaction to the update. Even so, AUD/USD stays on the back foot for the fourth day in a row while declining from 0.6856 to 0.6849 as we write on Friday’s initial Asian session.