Washington, Beijing can work together despite ‘significant’ disagreements: US Treasury head

ANKARA

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Sunday said that despite having “significant” disagreements, her country and China can work together on global challenges – from tackling the climate crisis to addressing sovereign debt sustainability and wider economic cooperation.

“This is not a bilateral issue between China and the United States. It is about responsible global leadership. The world deserves and expects its two largest economies to work together on these global problems and help find solutions,” Yellen said at a press conference in Beijing at the conclusion of her maiden four-day visit to China.

Yellen, an economist by training, and a former head of the US Federal Reserve, is the second Cabinet-level member of Joe Biden administration to visit Beijing in a month.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a two-day visit to Beijing in June – the first by a US secretary of state since 2018.

Washington’s Climate envoy John Kerry is set to visit China in July for talks on global warming.

Yellen expressed hopes that the relationship between Washington and Beijing will move to a phase where top-level diplomacy is “simply taken as a natural element of managing one of the world’s most consequential bilateral relationships.”

She stressed that the US will continue to take targeted and transparent actions to diversify supply chains from China, but not to decouple the world’s two largest economies, which would be “disastrous for both countries and destabilizing for the world.”

“No one visit will solve our challenges overnight. But I expect that this trip will help build a resilient and productive channel of communication with China’s new economic team,” said Yellen, who met with Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang, Vice Premier He Lifeng and the People’s Bank of China’s party chief Pan Gongsheng during her visit.

“The relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China is one of the most consequential of our time. As the world’s two largest economies, our nations collectively represent 40 percent of the global economy. What we do – both in the bilateral sphere as well as on the broader global stage – shapes the lives and livelihoods of the people in our countries and beyond” she maintained, according to a draft of her address released by the Treasury Department.

She said she discussed with her counterparts about China’s “unfair” economic practices, a recent uptick in “coercive actions” against American firms, national security and human rights.

“Even where we don’t see eye-to-eye, I believe there is clear value in the frank and in-depth discussions we had on the opportunities and challenges in our relationship, and the better understanding it gave us of each country’s actions and intentions,” she went on to say.

Yellen said the two sides also spoke about national security and human rights.

The US, she said, will continue to take “targeted” actions that are necessary to protect its national security interests and those of its allies.

“These actions will be transparent, narrowly-scoped and targeted to clear objectives,” Yellen said. She also raised the importance of ending Russia’s “brutal and illegal war against Ukraine.”

“As we continue to monitor the domestic situation in Russia, US support for Ukraine will not change. And I communicated that it is essential that Chinese firms avoid providing Russia with material support or assistance with sanctions evasion.”

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