Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies during a Senate Finance hearing to examine President Joe Biden’s proposed budget request for fiscal year 2025 on Capitol Hill Thursday, March 21, 2024, in Washington.
Yellen, who is planning her second trip to China as Treasury secretary, says in remarks prepared for delivery Wednesday in Georgia that she will convey her belief that Beijing’s increased production of green energy also poses risks “to productivity and growth in the Chinese economy.”China is the dominant player in batteries for electric vehicles and has a rapidly expanding auto industry that could challenge the world’s established carmakers as it goes global.
“These are concerns that I increasingly hear from government counterparts in industrialized countries and emerging markets, as well as from the business community globally,” she said. The tone of Yellen’s speech stands in contrast to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who met with American business leaders in Beijing Wednesday and called for closer trade ties with the U.S. amid a steady improvement in relations that had sunk to the lowest level in years.
Xi emphasized Wednesday the mutually beneficial economic ties between the world’s two largest economies, despite heavy U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports and Washington’s accusations of undue Communist Party influence, unfair trade barriers and theft of intellectual property.Hussein reports on the U.S. Treasury Department for The Associated Press. She covers tax policy, sanctions and any issue that relates to money.