US seeking to calm tensions with China, Treasury secretary says

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has arrived in China for a 4-day visit aimed to ease tensions and establish better communications lines between Washington and Beijing.

In prepared remarks for a meeting on Friday with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, she said she came to China to deepen communication and work toward a "stable and constructive relationship" between the two big economies.

"We believe that it is in the best interests of both countries to make sure we have direct and clear lines of communication at senior levels," she added.

Yellen went on to say that China's enormous and growing middle-class provided a big market for American goods and services, and stressed that Washington's targeted actions against China were based on national security concerns.

"We seek to diversify, not to decouple," she said. "A decoupling of the world’s two largest economies would be destabilizing for the global economy, and it would be virtually impossible to undertake."

Yellen noted, however, that the US and its Western allies will fight back against what she described as China's unfair economic practices.

"A shift toward market reforms would be in China’s interests," she stated.

US treasury chief to visit China after Blinken's failed trip, Biden's insulting remarks

US Treasury Secretary will visit China later this week following a recent failed trip there by Washington

The US Treasury Secretary pointed out that Washington's punitive measures against Chinese firms aimed to protect US interests.  

“The United States will, in certain circumstances, need to pursue targeted actions to protect its national security,” Yellen said. “And we may disagree in these instances.”

Among the measures targeting Chinese firms, the US in October announced sweeping export controls that restrict the ability of Chinese businesses to develop advanced semiconductors. This week, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced that starting August 1, businesses in China wanting to export the two metals gallium and germanium, which are used in the manufacturing of chips, would need to apply for licenses for exports.

China, for its part, has repeatedly called on the United to take concrete actions to improve bilateral ties in trade and other fields.

Beijing has also said that Washington must remove its anti-Beijing sanctions if it aims to restore broken communication lines.

In the meantime, Yellen, who had arrived in Beijing on Thursday, also met with former Chinese economy czar Liu He, a close confidante of President Xi Jinping.

Her visit to China takes place after a flurry of visits and earlier attempts to re-establish communication lines with Beijing by the US military and diplomatic apparatuses ended in fiascoes.

US military complains of being snubbed by China over persisting bans

The US Defense Department expressed frustration for being repeatedly ignored by Chinese officials when attempting to make contact amid Beijing’s ire over US sanctions.

Last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing.

Prior to his visit to Beijing, Blinken insisted that the objective of his China visit was to restore channels of communication with Chinese officials in an effort to avoid miscalculations by the two sides turning into an all-out military confrontation.

Blinken's visit came after China’s top military officials continued to refuse to hold talks with their American counterparts in recent months, citing US sanctions slapped against Beijing and senior Chinese officials as an obstacle to maintaining cordial relationships between Beijing and Washington.

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