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BEIJING, June 29 (TiPost)— U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen seems to drum up her long-awaited visit to China despite the Biden administration’s more attempts to curb the world’s leading economy second only to U.S.
Credit：Visual China
“I hope my travelling to China is to reestablish contact with their new group of leaders. We’ll need to get know one another,” Yellen replied to a question about her scheduled trip to China in an interview with MSNBC. She said Washington and Beijing needs to discuss disagreements with one another so that they don’t have misunderstandings, don’t misunderstand one another’s intentions.
Yellen reiterated her willingness to meet Chinese counterparts. She called for a better Sino-US relationship. “We believe a healthy economic relationship, health completion is benefits for both American businesses and workers and Chinese businesses and workers. This is something that is possible and desirable,” she said. “We really welcome and want to have a healthy economic relationship, and we think it’s generally beneficial. “
Yellen didn’t confirm the timetable about her trip, stating she didn’t have any specifics on the timing. The Treasury Secretary plans to o travel to China in early July for the first high-level economic talks with new Chinese counterpart, a Bloomberg report cited people familiar with the matter earlier this week, adding the travel isn’t confirmed yet. White House is working to draft an executive order that could cut off certain U.S. investments in China and aims to issue as early as late July, according to the report.
If the reported schedule comes true, Yellen is expected to be the official at the Biden administration to visit China second to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. As the highest ranking U.S. official as well as the top U.S. diplomat to visit China since October 2018, Blinken just wrapped up his two-day trip last week. He is also the highest ranking official from the U.S. cabinet to set foot in China since Biden took office in January 2021.
The U.S. Department of Treasury first suggested Yellen’s visit is on the horizon after her first face-to-face talk with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He in Zurich in January. However, the trip was postponed after the suspected spy balloon incident intensified tension between China and America.
Yellen repeated in April that she planned to travel to China “at the appropriate time.” In a speech addressed the same month, she warned economic decoupling from China “would be disastrous for both countries”, and be destabilizing for the rest of the world. The U.S. seeks a constructive and fair economic relationship with China, and both countries need to be able to frankly discuss difficult issues, and should work together for the benefit of both of them and the world, she said. The U.S. doesn’t seek competition that is winner-take-all; instead, it believes healthy economic competition with a fair set of rules can benefit both countries over time, according to Yellen.
Yellen cautioned about cutting ties with China again more than two weeks ago. “While we surely have concerns that need to be addressed, decoupling would be a big mistake,” Yellen said in her testimony before the House Financial Services Committee.
Yellen reconfirmed her pledge to defend U.S.’s own interests in the interview with MSNBC. “What I have tried to make clear is that the United States is taking actions and will continue to take actions intended to protect our national interests. We’ll do that even if it has, if it imposes economic cost on us,” she said.
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