US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellan said that the talks with Premier Li Qiang and Communist Party chief of China’s central bank Pan Gongsheng was direct, substantive, and productive.

Yellen’s trip marked the second visit by a US cabinet offical to the Beijing in a matter of weeks.

“No one visit will solve our challenges overnight. But I expect that this trip will help build a resilient and productive channel of communication,” Yellen told a news conference in Beijing.

Even Yellen reiterated that the US is not seeking to decouple from China, the US is still imposing sanction on Chinese companies, and also pushing allies including Japan and the Netherlands to restrict sales of advanced semiconductors to China. She said that “There is an important distinction between decoupling, on the one hand, and on the other hand, diversifying critical supply chains or taking targeted national security actions.” She said that the US would continue to make sure these actions are “transparent, narrowly scoped and targeted to clear objectives.”

“We believe the world is big enough for both of our countries to thrives. Both nations have an obligation to responsibly manage this relationship: to find a way to live together and share in global prosperity,” Yellen said.

Yellen’s trip came just days after China retaliated in a tech war with the US by announcing restrctions on exports of two strategic materials needed to make semiconductors. This move was widesly seens as a response to the Biden administration’s ban on advanced chip sales to China.

Even though both Beijing and Washington indicated that high-level discussions will continue, analysts expect that the tussle over access to advanced technology – may fuel more tension in the relationship.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/08/economy/us-china-yellen-visit-presser-intl-hnk/index.html