According to a New York Times report, Treasury Department Secretary Janet Yellen began her trip to Beijing by criticising China’s treatment of American businesses and highlighting the challenges they have faced while doing business there.
Yellen blasted the Chinese government’s treatment of enterprises with international links and its recent move to impose export curbs on materials needed to build semiconductor chips in a speech delivered Friday to a gathering of executives from some of the biggest U.S. businesses.
She stated at a gathering sponsored by the American Chamber of Commerce in China that she is discussing with her Chinese colleagues the issues raised by American business leaders during her visit, including the construction of obstacles to the Chinese market for international firms.
Punitive steps that have been taken against American businesses recently, she noted, “have been particularly upsetting me.”
Yellen’s travel is a component of a push by U.S. officials to reduce tensions with China, which have been building over the past several months. Secretary of State Antony Blinken went last month with the same objective.
In the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, the United States and China recently experienced a few close calls involving ships and aircraft.
China has increased its surveillance of American companies in response to the technology limitations the Biden administration imposed on it last year.
The Times quoted Yellen as saying that there would be more export controls from the United States.
According to the Times, a representative of the Chinese finance ministry expressed optimism that Yellen’s meetings with Chinese officials will lead to improved economic ties between the two nations. The “decoupling” and disruption of supply chains, they claimed, would not be advantageous to either China or the United States.
In a meeting with senior Chinese officials, including Premier Li Qiang, according to The Times, Yellen voiced her concerns about Chinese policy.
She has also had informal discussions about the future of the economy with the departing governor of the People’s Bank of China, Yi Gang, and former vice premier Liu He, according to a Treasury Department official who spoke with the media source.
