US, China pledge ‘healthy’ economic ties as Yellen visits Beijing

The United States and China are not working to weaken their economic ties despite ongoing disputes, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and her Chinese counterpart have said as Yellen held a series of meetings with leaders in Beijing.

The United States and China are not working to weaken their economic ties despite ongoing disputes, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and her Chinese counterpart have said as Yellen held a series of meetings with leaders in Beijing.

Yellen and China’s finance minister made the pledges on Friday (July 7), the second day of her four-day visit to the Chinese capital.

The trip is aimed at repairing fractious US-Chinese relations, which have soured amid disputes over security, technology and heightened competition between the world’s first and second largest economies.

Speaking to China-based US business leaders on Friday, Yellen said she had made it “clear that the United States does not seek a wholesale separation of our economies”.

“A decoupling of the world’s two largest economies would be destabilising for the global economy, and it would be virtually impossible to undertake,” she said.