- Yellen became the second top US official to visit Beijing.
- Yellen says, we want to diversify, not divide.
- Washington was “concerned” about sanctions: Yellen
Just a day after arriving in Beijing for talks with officials on her four-day visit, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said it was impossible to cut commercial ties with China as it would have an impact on global markets.
His visit comes just a month after a high-level visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in which he met President Xi Jinping.
In recent months, the US said it wanted to “mitigate risks” from China by limiting the country’s access to advanced technology Washington considered vital to national security.
The US has imposed sanctions on several Chinese companies to prevent them from accessing the most advanced chips, while pushing allies to do the same.
Yellen stressed on Friday that the US is not looking to “wholesale tear apart our economies”.
“We want to diversify, not split,” Yellen told a meeting with representatives of American businesses at a session organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing. The separation of the world’s two largest economies would be destabilizing for the global economy. “
“And it would be nearly impossible to accomplish.”
Ahead of Yellen’s visit, Beijing imposed new export controls on key semiconductor manufacturing metals, citing national security concerns.
The Treasury Secretary told American businesses on Friday that Washington is “concerned” about the sanctions.
“We are still evaluating the impact of these actions, but they remind us of the importance of building resilient and diverse supply chains,” he added.
meetings with officials
Beijing has taken an optimistic view of the visit, with China’s finance ministry saying on Friday that it would help “strengthen communication and exchanges between the two countries”.
“The nature of China-US economic and trade relations is mutually beneficial and win-win, and there is no winner in a trade war or ‘crack and break chains,'” a ministry official said in a statement.
A US Treasury official said on Friday morning, Yellen had “substantive talks” with her previous counterpart, former Vice Premier Liu He, as well as Yi Gang, the outgoing governor of China’s central bank.
“They discussed the global economic outlook as well as the respective economic outlook for the US and China,” the official said.
On Friday afternoon, Yellen is scheduled to meet with Premier Li Keqiang at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, giving them a chance to discuss economic ties, raise concerns and explore opportunities for cooperation.
“Yellen actually appears to be the more pragmatic member of the Biden administration,” said Tao Wenzhao, a fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. AFP,
“I think we welcome Yellen’s visit and on a functional level it should warm both sides to each other,” he said.
“We are now reshaping, rebuilding China-US relations.”
