US Secretary of Treasury calls for stabilizing relations with China

US Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen on Saturday called for stabilizing the United States’ rocky relationship with China and reopening regular lines of communication between the world’s two largest economies ahead of a global gathering next week where their leaders are expected to meet, Report informs via The New York Times.

Ms. Yellen’s comments came as she prepared to meet with Yi Gang, the governor of the People’s Bank of China, at the Group of 20 leaders summit on Monday in Bali, where President Biden is expected to meet with China’s leader, Xi Jinping. It will be the first in-person meeting between Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi since the president took office last year, a period in which ties between the nations further deteriorated.

“I think stabilizing the relationship and trying to get it on a better footing while recognizing that we have a whole range of concerns, and we would like to address those,” Ms. Yellen said on Saturday in an interview with The New York Times aboard her flight to Indonesia when asked how the relationship could be improved.

America’s relationship with China frayed considerably during the Trump administration, when President Donald J. Trump imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese imports. Soon after a deal to end the impasse was struck in late 2019, the coronavirus started to spread around the world and Mr. Trump blamed China for its emergence.

Despite the Biden administration’s less outwardly confrontational tone, relations with China have worsened in the past two years. The White House in October unveiled sweeping export restrictions to block China from gaining access to critical technology on national security grounds, and it has declined to roll back the remaining tariffs that were enacted by Mr. Trump.

Despite Ms. Yellen’s hopes for better relations, she also has in the past criticized China publicly.

In the spring, Ms. Yellen publicly urged China to pressure Russia to end its war in Ukraine and warned that its reputation as a global economic power could be eroded if it helped Russia evade sanctions.