Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen signaled at a Sunday morning press conference in Beijing what many had been hoping to hear: her talks with Chinese officials this week made progress in defrosting the icy relationship between the US and China.
Yellen is the second Biden administration official to visit the country in the last several weeks, and she said conversations with her counterparts were “direct, substantive and productive.” US-China economic issues, national security, climate change, and global debt challenges were the topics of their dialogue.
With this massive thumbs-up, the US can bank on the idea of a better relationship with China despite rocky recent history.
“President Biden and I do not see the relationship between the U.S. and China through the frame of great power conflict,” Yellen said said. “We believe that the world is big enough for both of our countries to thrive.”
Yellen said her meetings, which totaled about 10 hours over two days, “served as a step forward in our effort to put the U.S.-China relationship on surer footing.”
While she said the US will continue to take actions to protect its national security, Yellen shares President Joe Biden’s belief that there can be “healthy economic competition” between the U.S. and China — “an economic relationship that is mutually beneficial in the long term.”
“I do believe that it’s possible for both countries to be attentive to and to take actions to protect their national security interests,” she said.
The big win from Yellen’s visit appeared to be a simple willingness on the part of both sides to keep talking after years of escalating tensions. She added it was clear the two sides were willing to work together on issues where there were disagreements.
“Certainly, I expect our staffs to be in much more regular communication about the full range of issues that we discussed that require greater work,” she said.
Biden has made it a point of emphasis to rehabilitate the Washington-Beijing relationship, which has been hurt by trade disputes, Covid-19, and the infamous spy balloon.
