The US and China also agreed to continue the exchanges
Beijing:
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Sunday that her talks with top Chinese officials have made ties “more secure” as she completed a journey aimed at stabilizing fraught relations between the world’s two largest economies.
During her four-day trip – which followed the visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken – Yellen stressed the need for more exchange and cooperation, even as deep divisions between the countries remain.
“We believe the world is big enough for both countries to thrive,” she told reporters at the US embassy in Beijing on Sunday.
“Both nations have a duty to manage this relationship responsibly: to find a way to live together and share in the global prosperity,” she added.
Her trip furthers an effort by President Joe Biden’s administration to cement ties with China while enforcing US policy.
While the trip did not yield any specific breakthroughs, China’s official Xinhua news agency said late on Saturday that Yellen’s meeting with Deputy Prime Minister He Lifeng has produced an agreement to “strengthen communication and cooperation in tackling global challenges.”
Both sides also agreed to continue the exchange, the readout added.
And Yellen said on Sunday that while there are “significant differences of opinion” between the two countries, she and Chinese officials have had talks that have been “direct, substantive and productive.”
“My bilateral meetings — which totaled about 10 hours over two days — served as a step forward in our effort to solidify the relationship between the US and China,” she said.
– Sources of tension –
Topping the laundry list of disagreements is Washington’s trade restrictions, which he says are designed to reduce the second-largest economy’s access to advanced technology deemed critical to national security.
On Sunday, Yellen said she had emphasized that Washington’s measures “are not being used by us to gain economic advantage.”
“These actions are motivated by simple considerations of national security,” she said.
She also said she had expressed “serious concerns” about what she called “unfair trade practices” by Beijing.
She mentioned barriers to foreign companies entering the Chinese market, as well as issues around intellectual property protection.
“I also expressed concern about a recent increase in coercive action against US companies,” she said, referring to a recent national security crackdown on US consulting firms in China.
– ‘Messages’ an important goal –
Looking ahead, “any concrete key breakthroughs and major deliverables will presumably be reserved for the top two leaders to announce,” said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Washington-based Stimson Center.
“The two sides have not had this level of communication and consultation for several years,” she told AFP, adding that success will lie in starting or restarting this process.
Last month, Biden expressed confidence in meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping soon.
Lindsay Gorman, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, added, “I think an underappreciated audience is actually US allies and partners, both in the region and globally.”
“The main purpose of this trip is really a message purpose,” she told AFP.
One of the goals is to communicate how Washington views its economic relationship with China, dispelling the idea that it could embrace “pure zero-sum competition” – while signaling that it is pursuing a fairer playing field.
In general, China’s attitude to Yellen’s visit seems more “enthusiastic” than Blinken’s trip, as he is seen as more aggressive, said Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University.
“Yellen is seen as a professional in the eyes of the Chinese, and her attitude to China-US economic and trade relations is relatively rational,” said Wu, noting that she opposes the decoupling of the two economies.
Taylor Fravel, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told AFP: “I don’t think a single visit or a single interaction alone can achieve the goal of stabilizing relationships.”
But Yellen’s visit and remarks lend support to the continued economic cooperation between the US and China, “despite the political frictions in the relationship and competitive moves around restricting China’s access to certain technologies, such as semiconductors.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)