U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with China’s Ambassador to the United States Xie Fang on Monday, ahead of her travel this week to China as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to address strained relations between the two countries.
“The frank and productive discussion supported ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage the U.S.-China bilateral relationship,” the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.
Managing relations, working on issues of mutual interest, and ensuring tensions do not turn into conflict have been the major themes of talks between senior officials in recent weeks, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Beijing last month.
In Yellen’s talks with Xie, the Treasury Department said, Yellen “raised issues of concern while also conveying the importance of the two largest economies working together on global challenges, including on macroeconomic and financial issues.”
Yellen is due to visit China July 6-9 for talks with senior officials.
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.”
Officials also said Yellen plans to discuss U.S. concerns about a new Chinese counter-espionage law.
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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