Meeting with Premier Li Qiang, Yellen said Washington and Beijing have a duty to cooperate on issues that affect the world. She appealed for "regular channels of communication" at a time when relations are at their lowest in decades due to disputes over technology, security and other irritants.Yellen is one of several senior U.S. officials due to visit Beijing to encourage Chinese leaders to revive interactions between governments of the two largest economies.
"A fair set of rules will benefit both of our countries," Yellen said. "We also face important global challenges where the United States and China have a duty to both countries but also to the world to cooperate." "There will be no winners in trade wars or `decoupling and broken chains,"' the ministry said in a statement. "We hope the United States will take concrete actions to create a favourable environment for the healthy development of economic and trade relations."
U.S. and other foreign companies are uneasy about their status in China following raids on consulting firms, the expansion of a national security law and calls by Xi and other officials for greater self-sufficiency. "I have made clear that the United States does not seek a wholesale separation of our economies," Yellen told the businesspeople. "A decoupling of the world's two largest economies would be destabilizing for the global economy, and it would be virtually impossible to undertake."