Goal of Yellen’s efforts to mend US-China ties are really “messaging”
ALBAWABA – United States (US) Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced Sunday that talks with top Chinese officials, July 6 through 9, have in fact helped put US-China ties on “surer footing”, news agencies have reported.
Yellen travelled to Beijing last Thursday on a 4-day effort to shore up US-China ties after months of tension and deterioration.
It included a marathon of meetings with senior Chinese officials, for more than 10 hours, Yellen said, as reported by Agence France-Presses (AFP).
Her visit came on the heels of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit earlier in June and was intended to reopen lines of communication and ease some of the growing US-China tensions.
Her series of bilateral meetings with Chinese counterparts over the past three days were "direct" and "productive", she said.
Before departing China on Sunday, Yellen said the US and China remained at odds on a number of issues but expressed confidence that her visit had advanced efforts to put US-China relations on a better path.
"The US and China have significant disagreements," Yellen told a press conference at the US embassy in Beijing, according to Reuters.
At the conference, she underlined Washington's concerns about what she called "unfair economic practices" and recent punitive actions against US firms.
"But 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."
During her four-day trip, Yellen stressed the need for healthy economic competition and improved communication, and urged cooperation on the "existential threat" posed by climate change.
"I feel confident that we will have more frequent and regular communication," she said.
Reassurances and outlook on US-China ties
Washington's measures "are not used by us to gain economic advantage", Yellen underscored. "These actions are motivated by straightforward national security considerations".
The US had enacted several measures aim at the advanced semiconductors and microchips sector, banning exportation of the chips and technologies to China and factories in China.
Beijing's official Xinhua news agency said Saturday that Yellen's meeting with Vice Premier He Lifeng yielded an agreement to "strengthen communication and cooperation on addressing global challenges".
Both sides also agreed to continue exchanges, the readout added.
However, any key breakthroughs and major deliverables will likely “be reserved for the two top leaders to announce," said Yun Sun, China program director at the Washington-based Stimson Center.
"The two sides have not had this level of communications and consultations for a number of years," she told AFP.
Last month, Biden voiced confidence in meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping soon.
Lindsay Gorman, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, added: "I think one underappreciated audience is really US allies and partners, both in the region and globally."
"The main goal for this trip is really a messaging goal," she told AFP.
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.
But Yellen's visit and remarks convey support for continued US-China economic cooperation, "despite the political frictions in the relationship and competitive actions around limiting China's access to certain technologies such as semiconductors."
