U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is due to travel Thursday to China to meet with senior officials in the latest effort to address strained relations between the two countries.
The Treasury Department said in a statement Sunday that Yellen’s visit would take place from July 6-9 and follows a directive from President Joe Biden to deepen communications on issues such as financial developments and the global macroeconomy.
“While in Beijing, Secretary Yellen will discuss with PRC officials the importance for our countries — as the world’s two largest economies — to responsibly manage our relationship, communicate directly about areas of concern, and work together to address global challenges,” the statement said.
A senior Treasury Department official told reporters Sunday that the United States wants a healthy economic relationship with China and that halting trade and investment “would be destabilizing for both our countries and the global economy.”
Yellen’s visit follows Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to China last month in which he and President Xi Jinping agreed to stabilize U.S.-China relations and ensure that areas of disagreement do not turn into conflict.
A senior treasury official said Yellen plans to discuss U.S. concerns about a new Chinese counter-espionage law.
“We have concerns with the new measure, and how it might apply, that it could expand the scope of what is considered by the authorities in China to be espionage activity,” the official said, citing possible spillovers to the broader investment climate and the economic relationship.
Yellen addressed U.S.-China relations during an April speech at Johns Hopkins University, saying it would be healthy to have a relationship that fosters growth an innovation in both countries.
“A growing China that plays by international rules is good for the United States and the world,” Yellen said. “Both countries can benefit from healthy competition in the economic sphere. But healthy economic competition — where both sides benefit — is only sustainable if that competition is fair.”
Yellen also said that for the sake of global stability, the United States and China should cooperate “on the urgent global challenges of our day.”
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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