Yellen criticizes China's 'punitive' actions against US companies, urges market reforms
- Yellen says U.S. wants healthy competition, not winner-take-all
- Chinese Premier Li hopeful about bilateral ties
- U.S. industry welcomes Yellen's 'firepower'
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called on Friday for market reforms in China and criticized the world's second-largest economy for its recent harsh actions against U.S. companies and new export controls on some critical minerals.
Yellen spoke to the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham) after what a Treasury official called "substantive" talks with former Chinese economy czar Liu He, a close confidante of President Xi Jinping, and outgoing top Chinese central banker Yi Gang.
The United States is seeking healthy competition with China based on fair rules that benefit both countries, not a "winner-take-all" approach, Yellen told Chinese Premier Li Qiang in a subsequent meeting on Friday.
Yellen and other U.S. officials are walking a difficult tightrope of trying to repair fractious ties with China after the U.S. military shot down a Chinese government balloon over the United States, while continuing to push Beijing to halt practices they view as harmful to U.S. and Western companies.
AmCham President Michael Hart welcomed Yellen's "extra firepower" in pressing for changes in China's policies, and said her visit could pave the way for more exchanges at lower levels between the two sides.
Yellen told the U.S. business executives a "stable and constructive relationship" between the two countries would benefit U.S. companies and workers, but Washington also needed to protect its national security interests and human rights.
Regular exchanges could help both countries monitor economic and financial risks at a time when the global economy was facing "headwinds like Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine and the lingering effects of the pandemic," Yellen added.
At the same time, she said she would raise concerns with Chinese officials about Beijing's use of expanded subsidies for state-owned enterprises and domestic firms, barriers to market access for foreign firms, and its recent "punitive actions" against U.S. firms.
Yellen told the U.S. business executives a "stable and constructive relationship" between the two countries would benefit U.S. companies and workers, but Washington also needed to protect its national security interests and human rights.
Regular exchanges could help both countries monitor economic and financial risks at a time when the global economy was facing "headwinds like Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine and the lingering effects of the pandemic," Yellen added.
At the same time, she said she would raise concerns with Chinese officials about Beijing's use of expanded subsidies for state-owned enterprises and domestic firms, barriers to market access for foreign firms, and its recent "punitive actions" against U.S. firms.
MARKET REFORMS
Yellen also took aim at China's planned economy, urging Beijing to return to more market-oriented practices that had underpinned its rapid growth in past years.
"A shift toward market reforms would be in China’s interests," she told the AmCham event.
"A market-based approach helped spur rapid growth in China and helped lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. This is a remarkable economic success story."
Yellen noted that China's enormous and growing middle-class provided a big market for American goods and services, and stressed that Washington's targeted actions against China were based on national security concerns.
"We seek to diversify, not to decouple," she said. "A decoupling of the world’s two largest economies would be destabilizing for the global economy, and it would be virtually impossible to undertake."
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In the past they wanted to force upon us their religious model of christianity. These days its all about forcing the economic model of neoliberalism through our throats. Yeah, the magic pill.