Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng meets with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in Beijing, on July 8, 2023. Pan Gongsheng, Party chief of the People's Bank of China, and Liu Kun, Chinese Minister of Finance also met Yellen during her trip. Photo: AFP

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen concluded her four-day China visit on Sunday following candid, pragmatic, in-depth and constructive talks with senior Chinese officials. 

During the talks, the Chinese side expounded the mutually beneficial nature of China-US economic ties, asked the US side to take concrete actions to respond to China's stern concerns over US' economic sanction and suppression, explained China's position on conducting healthy economic competition, and demonstrated China's willingness to cooperate with the US to address a series of global challenges, said China's Finance Ministry on Monday.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang met with Yellen on Friday, exchanging views on major topics concerning China-US relations, with a focus on economic and trade ties, the ministry said in a statement.

On Saturday, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and Yellen held an in-depth, candid and practical exchange on the economic and financial situation of the two countries and the whole world, as well as on working together to address global challenges.

During the talks, the Chinese side pointed out that a healthy and generally stable China-US relationship will not only be beneficial for the two countries but for global peace and development, and mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation are the basic principles of state-to-state interactions, and also the right way for countries to get along with each other.

It is hoped that the US side will adopt a rational and pragmatic attitude, and work with China in the same direction to implement the understandings reached by the two heads of state in Bali and bring the bilateral relations back to the right track at an early date, according to the statement.
China believes that the country's development is an opportunity rather than a challenge to the US, and is "a gain rather than a risk". 

Meanwhile, the US side said that it does not seek to "decouple" from China and the decoupling of the world's top two economies will be disastrous for both countries and bring instability to the world.

During the talks, Chinese side reiterated concerns on issues such as removing punitive tariffs imposed on Chinese products, stopping suppressing Chinese companies, treating two-way investment between the two countries fairly, relaxing export control measures on China, and removing the bans on Xinjiang region-related products, the ministry said.

China has also clarified its position on healthy economic competition, believing that in order to form healthy China-US economic ties, the two must fully respect the legitimate development rights and interests of each other, and engage in healthy competition in accordance with market economic principles and the WTO rules. 

Since China adopted the policy of reform and opening up, the country has set up and continuously improved its socialist market-oriented system, and is now promoting a higher level of opening-up. Differences should not be a reason for estrangement, but rather a driving force for strengthening communication and exchange, the ministry said.

Moreover, global challenges such as macroeconomic and financial stability, climate change, and debt issues are becoming increasingly severe. Effectively addressing global challenges requires coordination and cooperation between China and the US, which is in the common interests of the two countries and is also conducive to improving the well-being of people around the world, the ministry said.

In the face of increasingly severe global challenges, it is hoped that developed countries including the US will shoulder their due responsibilities, accommodate the concerns of developing countries, and contribute more to help global economic growth.