July 2 (UPI) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to China later this week for talks with senior government officials, her department said Sunday, amid efforts to simmer boiling tensions between the two global superpowers.
The Treasury said in a statement Sunday that Yellen will visit China on Thursday to July 9. Specifics of the visit, including whom she will met, were not released.
“While in Beijing, Secretary Yellen will discuss with PRC officials the importance for our countries — as the world’s two largest economies — to responsibly manage our relationship, communicate directly about areas of concern and work together to address global challenges,” the federal agency said, referring to China by the initials of its official name, the People’s Republic of China.
The visit comes less than a month after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken completed a two-day trip to the Asian nation that included a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during which they both agreed to stabilize their relationship, the United States’ top diplomat said afterward.
Tensions between the two countries have been climbing for years as the United States has condemned China over its human rights abuses and as Beijing tries to expand its international influence.
The issue has become more inflamed recently over Taiwan, an island of 23 million that Beijing views as a rouge province it as vowed to take back by force if necessary, despite Taipei rejecting its sovereignty as it has never been part of mainland China, which was founded in 1949.
President Joe Biden has said the United States would defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion though White House officials have walked those comments back.
Washington has also sought to deepen its relationship with the self-governing island, while Beijing has accused the Biden administration of interfering in its internal affairs.
The meeting between Blinken and Xi was the first high-level exchange between the two countries since Biden and Xi met in November on the sidelines of the G20 economic summit held in Bali, Indonesia.
Following their first meeting since Biden took office, the U.S. president told reporters that he doesn’t believe they are head toward a new cold war and that there isn’t “any imminent attempt on the part of China to invade Taiwan.”
In April, Yellen spoke before the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, detailing the three principal objectives of the Treasury’s economic approach to China, which include securing U.S. national security interests, seeking a “healthy” economic relationship with Beijing and fostering cooperation on urgent global issues, such as climate change and debt distress.