BEIJING: The US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said 10 hours of meetings with senior Chinese officials in recent days were direct and productive, helping stabilise the superpowers’ often rocky relationship as her four-day Beijing trip ended.
Before departing China on Sunday, Yellen said the US and China remained at odds on a number of issues but expressed confidence that her visit had advanced efforts to put the relationship on “surer footing”.
“The US and China have significant disagreements,” Yellen told a press conference at the US embassy in Beijing, citing Washington’s concerns about what she called “unfair economic practices” and recent punitive actions against US firms.
“But President (Joe) Biden and I do not see the relationship between the US and China through the frame of great power conflict. We believe that the world is big enough for both of our countries to thrive.” With US-China relations at a low over national security issues, including Taiwan, US export bans on advanced technologies and China’s state-led industrial policies, Washington has been trying to repair ties between the world’s two biggest economies.