BEIJING: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said 10 hours of bilateral meetings with senior Chinese officials in recent days were “direct” and “productive”, helping stabilise the rocky relationship as her four-day Beijing trip ended.
Before departing China on Sunday, Yellen said the United States and China remained at odds on a number of issues but expressed confidence that her visit advanced efforts to put the relationship on “surer footing”.
“The US and China have significant disagreements,” Yellen told a press conference at the US embassy in Beijing, citing Washington’s concerns about “unfair economic practices” and recent punitive actions against US firms.
“President (Joe) Biden and I do not see the relationship between the US and China through the frame of great power conflict. We believe that the world is big enough for both of our countries to thrive.”
With US-China relations at a low over national security issues, including Taiwan, US export bans on advanced technologies and China’s state-led industrial policies, Washington has been trying to repair ties between the world’s two biggest economies.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing last month, the first trip by the top US diplomat of Biden’s presidency. Climate envoy John Kerry is expected to visit this month.
The US diplomatic push comes ahead of a possible meeting between Biden and President Xi Jinping at September’s Group of 20 summit in New Delhi or the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering scheduled for November in San Francisco.
Yellen said her visit aimed to establish and deepen ties to China’s new economic team, reduce the risk of misunderstanding and pave the way for cooperation in areas such as climate change and debt distress.
Yellen met with officials including Premier Li Qiang and People’s Bank of China Deputy Governor Pan Gongsheng, whom she referred to as the head of the central bank, appearing to confirm his expected promotion.
She also met US companies doing business in China, climate finance experts and women economists. In her meetings with officials, she urged more cooperation between the sides on economic and climate issues while criticising what she called “punitive actions” against US companies in China.
She reiterated that Washington was not seeking to decouple from China’s economy, as doing so would be “disastrous for both countries and destabilising for the world.”
Yellen said she had emphasised to her Chinese counterparts that any investment curbs would be “highly targeted, and clearly directed, narrowly, at a few sectors where we have specific national security concerns,” to avoid unnecessary repercussions.
Asked about plans by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa to create a common trading currency for their BRICS group, Yellen said she expected the dollar to remain the dominant currency in international transactions.
On Russia’s war in Ukraine, she told her Chinese interlocutors it was “essential” that Chinese firms avoid providing Moscow with material support for the war or in evading sanctions.
Both sides had downplayed expectations for breakthroughs during the talks while hailing the opportunity for face-to-face diplomacy.
“No one visit will solve our challenges overnight. But I expect that this trip will help build a resilient and productive channel of communication,” Yellen said.
