US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen arrives at Beijing Capital International Airport on July 6, 2023. Photo: VCG

US Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen on Sunday reiterated that the US is not seeking to “decouple” from China's economy at a press conference held in Beijing.

Concluding her four-day trip to China, Yellen said that her conversations with high-ranking Chinese officials were “direct, substantive, and productive”, according to a news release published by the US Department of Treasury.

Yellen said that her objective of the trip has been to establish understanding and deepen relationships with China’s new economic leadership team. The discussions are part of a broader concerted effort to “stabilize the relationship, reduce the risk of misunderstanding, and discuss areas of cooperation”, she said.

In her speech Yellen noted that US is not seeking a decoupling from China. A decoupling of the world’s two largest economies would be disastrous for both countries, and destabilizing for the world, she said.

Yellen landed in Beijing on Thursday for a high-stakes visit, which follows US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's two-day stop in Beijing in June. Over the past months, the US treasury secretary has frequently hinted at her willingness to visit China.

Her visit comes at a time when Washington is intensifying its tech blockade against China, amid fraught ties between the world’s top two economies. 

It is hoped that the US government could match its words with deeds, and will not go for so-called "de-risking," another version of decoupling, Gao Lingyun, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times on Sunday.

"We are open to fair competition, but the definition of fair competition should be jointly consulted and agreed upon by both sides, rather than solely determined by the US. If the definition is solely based on the US perspective, it would not be fair to us," Gao said.

Days before Yellen’s visit, China announced export controls on gallium and germanium, two dual-use crucial minerals used in the making of semiconductors and other electronic components to safeguard national security interests.

Following the visit by Yellen, the extent to possible cooperation between the US and China can be achieved largely depends on the actions to be taken by the US, Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Thursday.