Yellen calls for the US-China relationship not to be a “winner take all” competition

The US Treasury Secretary assures that the US will take specific measures to protect its national security

July 9 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The United States Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, has met in Beijing with the Chinese Vice Premier, He Lifeng, a meeting that lasted five hours and that has been defined as “sincere, constructive and exhaustive” by the Treasury Department .

Yellen has brought “issues of concern” to China for the Biden Administration and has conveyed to Chinese officials her hope that the relationship between China and the United States is not reduced to “a winner-takes-all contest.” .

In this sense, the American has pointed out that the US will take “specific measures to protect its national security”, but has indicated that both powers must manage their rivalry based on “fair rules that benefit both countries”.

To this end, Yellen added in a statement, the need for both powers to “communicate and exchange points of view on our responses to various challenges” is “urgent”. Challenges like the debt overhang in emerging markets and developing countries and climate change.

“This communication can help both parties to better understand the global economic outlook and make better decisions to strengthen our economies,” said the secretary.

This has been the first in-depth exchange between the representatives of the world’s two largest economies, who seek to improve their communication and join forces in matters of macroeconomic and financial stability.

The announcement of Yellen’s trip to China came a few days after the visit to Beijing by the Secretary of the United States Department of State, Antony Blinken, to reduce tensions between the two countries.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated in recent months due to trade frictions and international alliances that separate them, and ended up first derailing in August last year, with the visit to Taiwan of the then president of the lower house of the Congress of the United States, Nancy Pelosi, and in February of this year with the demolition by the US Army of an alleged Chinese spy balloon –meteorological probe, according to Beijing–.