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Yellen says US seeks 'healthy competition' with China, eyes Beijing trip
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made her remarks amid heightened tensions and pessimism in the US-China relationship over national security issues, including Taiwan, Russia's war in Ukraine, and growing US export bans on advanced technologies.
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US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen addresses the US Conference of Mayors winter meeting in Washington, DC. on Jan. 19, 2022. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
T
he US seeks "constructive and fair" economic ties with China, but will protect its national security interests and push back against Chinese actions to dominate foreign competitors, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday.
Speaking at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, Yellen laid out the Biden administration's principal objectives for what she called an "essential" economic relationship between the world's two largest economies, as China strikes a more confrontational posture toward the United States and its allies.
"Our relationship is clearly at a tense moment," Yellen said. "My goal is to be clear and honest, to cut through the noise and speak to this essential relationship, based on sober realities."
She said she intended to travel to Beijing "at the appropriate time" to meet with her new Chinese counterparts to help "responsibly" manage the relationship, but Treasury offered no details on the timing of a trip.
Yellen made her remarks amid heightened tensions and pessimism in the US-China relationship over national security issues, including Taiwan, Russia's war in Ukraine, growing US export bans on advanced technologies and China's state-led industrial policies.
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned last week that such tensions and supply chain "friend-shoring" could spill into a new Cold War that would stunt global growth.
Yellen contrasted strong US growth with China's slowing GDP output, arguing that the US would remain the world's unparalleled economic leader in metrics from wealth to technological innovation. But she said a growing China was in the interest of both countries, as long as it followed global rules.
