Yellen says China talks ‘productive’ at end of Beijing trip

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen signaled at a Sunday morning press conference in Beijing that her talks with Chinese officials this week made progress in shoring up the frayed relationship between the U.S. and China.

Yellen, the second Biden administration official to visit the country in the last several weeks, said conversations with her counterparts were “direct, substantive and productive.” The talks covered U.S.-China economic issues, national security, climate change and global debt challenges.

The big takeaway as Yellen prepared to leave Beijing: The U.S. believes the world’s two largest economies can have a constructive relationship despite their geopolitical tensions, which have triggered export controls for high-tech goods and materials.

"President Biden and I do not see the relationship between the U.S. and China through the frame of great power conflict," she said. "We believe that the world is big enough for both of our countries to thrive."

Yellen's attempt to rehabilitate the Washington-Beijing economic dialogue is the latest step in a Biden administration initiative to stabilize ties, which have been strained by trade disputes, Covid-19 and this year's incursion of a Chinese spy balloon over the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken touted progress last month after he met with President Xi Jinping and other officials in Beijing.

Yellen said her meetings, which totaled about 10 hours over two days, "served as a step forward in our effort to put the U.S.-China relationship on surer footing."

While she said the U.S. will continue to take actions to protect its national security interests, Yellen and President Joe Biden believe there can be “healthy economic competition” between the U.S. and China — “an economic relationship that is mutually beneficial in the long term.”

“I do believe that it’s possible for both countries to be attentive to and to take actions to protect their national security interests,” she said.

The major win from Yellen’s visit appeared to be a willingness on the part of both sides to keep talking after years of escalating tensions over trade and security.

Yellen said the trip was an opportunity for U.S. officials and a new economic team in Beijing to “establish a desire and willingness to work together to discuss issues where we have disagreements and see deeper engagement on the part of our staffs.”

Yellen's trip included meetings with Vice Premier He Lifeng and People’s Bank of China Head Pan Gongsheng.

“Certainly, I expect our staffs to be in much more regular communication about the full range of issues that we discussed that require greater work,” she said.