Yellen had a ‘constructive visit’ to China with opportunities for ‘more frequent contacts’ in the longer term, she says

After a high stakes four-day trip to China, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she had a “constructive visit” and a “very substantive series of meetings” with Chinese officials in regards to the state of the worldwide economy, export controls and national security.

Yellen’s trip is a component of ongoing efforts to stabilize U.S.-China relations after months of escalating tensions. Her visit got here just weeks after Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit last month.

These efforts could ultimately pave the best way for a gathering between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G-20 leaders’ summit in Recent Delhi in September and the APEC leaders’ summit in San Francisco in November. Each leaders last met in Bali last 12 months.

“We’ve a latest team on the economic side in Beijing, that it is vital to ascertain person-to-person relationships, and to open ongoing channels of communication, where concerns could be aired and discussed,” Yellen told CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday. “And I do think my trip has been successful in forging those relationships and creating the chance for a deeper set of more frequent contacts at our staff levels.”

Yellen’s task in Beijing was complex. She said she raised plenty of concerns, including national security and the intimidation some American corporations have been experiencing, but she also sought Chinese cooperation on issues starting from climate change to debt distress.  

Yellen said her purpose was to be sure the 2 nations don’t engage in “unintended escalatory actions that will likely be harmful to our overall economic relationship with each other.” 

As an example, just days before Yellen’s visit, Beijing slapped export curbs on chipmaking metals and compounds. China’s Ministry of Commerce claimed it gave the U.S. and Europe advance notice. In October, the U.S. launched sweeping rules geared toward cutting off exports of key chips and semiconductor tools to China. 

Yellen said she expressed concern in regards to the export controls and contrasted it with the U.S. decision. She explained that the U.S.’ actions “are narrowly targeted to handle national security concerns,” while it is just not clear that the Chinese export controls were implemented for that very same reason.

“We’ve had little or no contact, each senior officials, and in addition just the American people and the Chinese individuals who’ve had little or no contact with each other over the past several years, partly due to Covid,” Yellen said. “And that is a situation where misunderstandings can develop.” 

Yellen said China can be taking steps to handle concerns a couple of slowing economy, and that there are opportunities for American businesses to profit.

Besides, she said national security stays a priority for the U.S.

“China has an infinite market. It’s a big share of the worldwide economy, and we would like to be sure that American businesses and staff can take advantage of that, and contribute also to China’s success in addition to our own,” Yellen said. “But there are areas where national security really demands that essentially the most advanced technologies with military applications, we’d like to withhold to guard our own national security. And we have now acted and can proceed to act to try this.”

— CNBC’s Clement Tan contributed to this report.