Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday called the relationship between the U.S. and China among “the most consequential in the world,” saying, “we need to get it right.” Yellen was speaking ahead of a planned meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
In a speech to the Asia Society on the Biden administration’s economic strategy in the Indo-Pacific region, Yellen said that the U.S. isn’t seeking to “decouple” from China, and that if countries in the region take the side of either Washington or Beijing, it would have “significant negative global repercussions.”
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Biden and Xi — leaders of the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 economies — are planning to meet on the sidelines of the Nov. 12-18 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.
Yellen has traveled to South Korea, Japan, India and other Indo-Pacific countries during her tenure as Treasury chief, and her speech served to underscore that the U.S. plans to cooperate more with China’s neighbors.
“Across the Indo-Pacific, we are rebuilding and strengthening older alliances and investing in newer partnerships,” Yellen said.
The Treasury chief also spoke Thursday to the Inter-American Development Bank, outlining how diversifying supply chains with “trusted partners and allies” would have “tremendous potential benefits for fueling growth in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Tensions between the U.S. and China remain high, including over U.S. export controls on advanced technology
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and China’s more assertive actions in the East and South China seas.
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, believes that the road to a Biden-Xi meeting will not be “smooth sailing” and that both sides must work together to achieve results, the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
Read: China’s foreign minister warns upcoming Xi-Biden meeting may not be ‘smooth sailing’
The Associated Press contributed.
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