U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (L) shakes hands with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng during a meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, on Saturday. Pool Photo by Mark Schiefelbein/EPA-EFE
July 8 (UPI) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Saturday said the United States and China must seek to “closely communicate” with each other during a meeting in Beijing with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.
There is a pressing need for the world’s two largest economies to “enhance our communication” amid a complicated global economic outlook, Yellen said on the third day of four-day visit to China, where she is seeking to tame the increasingly bitter economic rivalry between the nations.
Rather than confrontation, the two countries should instead “seek a relationship of healthy economic competition that is not winner-take-all, but that, with a fair set of rules, would benefit both countries over time,” she said after meeting with He, China’s new economic chief, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.
The 68-year-old He, widely seen as a staunchly loyal to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, replaced veteran Chinese diplomat Liu He as the China’s chief economic minister in March.
Yellen’s China trip, which wraps up Sunday, is designed to ease Sino-American tensions which have spilled over into the realm of economics in recent months.
Amid the global competition, the United States has taken actions to limit China’s involvement in the manufacturing of not only its critical infrastructure but that of its allies while also restricting Beijing’s access to U.S.-made technology, citing national security concerns.
On Monday, China’s commerce ministry said it had enacted new export restrictions on the key semiconductor metals of gallium and germanium, requiring exporters to secure a license to ship the two metals and related products starting Aug. 1. Beijing said the measures were put in place “in order to safeguard national security and interests.”
“It is my belief that a wide swathe of our economies can interact in ways that are uncontroversial to both governments,” Yellen said Saturday. “The fact that despite recent tensions we set a record for bilateral trade in 2022 suggests there is ample room for our firms to engage in trade and investment.”
Earlier in the day the U.S. treasury chief held a roundtable discussion with climate finance leaders in Beijing where she “stressed the importance of tackling longstanding global challenges like climate change that threaten us all.”
At the meeting Yellen pointed out that Chinese Premier Li Qiang participated in last month’s the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact in Paris and called on China to work with Washington to “effectively” support multinational efforts to reduce greenhouse gases.
Yellen met with Li on Friday, again emphasizing that their disagreements should not worsen the countries’ economic and financial relationships.
Li responded by saying the world needs a generally stable China-U.S. relationship and that their ability to get along with each other “is of significance to the future of humanity.”
“Chinese culture values peace above everything else, as opposed to hegemony and bullying,” Li said, according to official Chinese media, adding that Beijing hopes the U.S. side “will adopt a rational and pragmatic attitude, and work with China in the same direction to push bilateral relations back onto the right track at an early date.”