US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Visits China as Part of Efforts to Soothe Strained Relations
By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer 11:10 JST, July 7, 2023 BEIJING (AP) Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to tell Chinese officials that Washington wants healthy economic competition but will defend trade curbs imposed by the U.S. on security grounds and express concern about Beijings export controls on metals used in semiconductors and solar panels, a senior Treasury official said Thursday. Yellen was due to meet Friday with Chinas No. 2 leader, Premier Li Qiang, as part of efforts to revive relations that are at their lowest level in decades due to disputes over security, technology and other irritants. Treasury officials have said she wouldnt meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Washington doesnt support decoupling, or disconnecting U.S. and Chinese industries and markets, and Yellen will reiterate that message, the Treasury official said. Businesspeople have warned that might harm innovation and growth as both governments tighten controls on trade in technology and other goods deemed sensitive. Yellen planned to discuss targeted action by Washington on trade due to national security or human rights concerns, according to the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity. Her visit follows one by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met Xi last month in the highest-level U.S. visit to Beijing in five years. The two agreed to stabilize relations but failed to agree on improving communications between their militaries. Major agreements arent expected to come out of the meetings between Yellen and Chinese officials this week, says William Reinsch, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington. Rather the hope of restarting dialogue between the two nations is the goal. The best you can hope for this time around would be if the Chinese agree to some kind of structure for continuing economic conversations, he said. Chinas government has been frustrated by U.S. curbs on Chinese access to advanced processor chips on security grounds. That threatens to delay or derail the ruling Communist Partys efforts to develop telecoms, artificial intelligence and other technologies. Xi accused Washington in March of trying to hamper Chinas development. Washington doesnt use security-related restrictions for economic benefit and considers national security non-negotiable, the Treasury official said. The United States wants healthy economic competition with China but considers some of Beijings trade practices unfair, the official said. They said Yellen would detail those concerns in meetings with Chinese officials. The official cited this weeks announcement of Chinese export controls on gallium and germanium as an example of policies about which Washington wants more information. The announcement jolted South Korea and other countries whose industries use Chinese supplies of the metals. Washington wants to promote resilient supply chains and guard against excessive reliance on suppliers in critical areas but doesnt consider that to be decoupling, the Treasury official said. Sourabh Gupta, a senior Asia-Pacific international relations policy specialist at the Institute for China-America Studies in Washington, said the U.S. argument that targeted restrictions are coming from a national security standpoint and not an economic competitiveness one isnt expected to convince the Chinese government but may provide further assurances that more communication between the countries is desired. It does help create a certain reassurance that at least the U.S. is looking for a good relationship, he said. Yellen said earlier the two governments can and need to find a way to live together in spite of their strained relations over geopolitics and economic development. Treasury officials told reporters earlier in Washington the secretary wanted to focus on stabilizing the global economy and challenging Chinese support of Russia during its invasion of Ukraine. The latest flareup came after President Joe Biden referred to Xi as a dictator. The Chinese government protested, but Biden said his blunt statements are just not something Im going to change very much. Ties became especially testy after a Chinese surveillance balloon flew over the United States in February and was subsequently shot down. Bidens climate envoy, John Kerry, is slated to become the next administration official to visit China, next week, a State Department official confirmed Thursday. China and the U.S. are the worlds No. 1 and No. 2 top climate polluters, giving their one-on-one climate talks outsize importance. The trip will be Kerrys first to China since it broke off climate discussions with the U.S. in August in retaliation for then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosis travel to Taiwan. Kerry, a former Secretary of State, is pushing China to move faster to wean itself off of dirty-burning coal-fired power plants and commit itself to a plan to reduce leaks of destructive methane from natural gas. JN ACCESS RANKING The Japan News / Weekly Edition Our weekly ePaper presents the most noteworthy recent topics in an exciting, readable fomat. Read more 2023 The Japan News - by The Yomiuri Shimbun