Recently, both US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have visited the People’s Republic of China. Their mission is quite clear to most. Though the US and China are at loggerhead on many domestic and international matters, both sides realize that they are interdependent on each other and that total decoupling will hurt both economies and that of the world.
On July 8, 2023 Janet Yellen held a Press Briefing on her trip to China, the following are the important comments from this press conference and from the Remarks by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen on the U.S. – China Economic Relationship at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies:
“Let’s start with the obvious. The U.S. and China are the two largest economies in the world. And we are deeply integrated with one another. Overall trade between our countries reached over $700 billion in 2021. We trade more with China than with any countries other than Canada and Mexico. American firms have extensive operations in China. Hundreds of Chinese firms are listed on our stock exchanges, which are part of the deepest and most liquid capital markets in the world. According to the Nature Index, the United States and China are each other’s most significant scientific collaborators. And China remains among the top sources for international students in the United States.”
“As I’ve said, the United States will assert ourselves when our vital interests are at stake. But we do not seek to “decouple” our economy from China’s. A full separation of our economies would be disastrous for both countries. It would be destabilizing for the rest of the world. Rather, we know that the health of the Chinese and U.S. economies is closely linked. A growing China that plays by the rules can be beneficial for the United States. For instance, it can mean rising demand for U.S. products and services and more dynamic U.S. industries.”
It is our fervent hope that the US and China would find a way to co-exist!