‘Virtually Impossible’: Janet Yellen Says United States Not Seeking To ‘Decouple’ From China
Harold Hutchison on July 7, 2023
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Friday the United States was not seeking to “decouple” its economy from China, despite calls from some Republicans to do so.
“The United States does not seek a wholesale separation of our economies,” Yellen said during remarks while on a trip to meet with Chinese officials in Beijing. “We seek to diversify and not to decouple. The decoupling of the world’s two largest economies would be destabilizing for the global economy and it would be virtually impossible to undertake.”
WATCH:
Yellen criticized calls for America to decouple from China in an April 20 speech at Johns Hopkins, saying that such a move would be “disastrous” for both countries.
Republican presidential candidates former President Donald Trump and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy have called for tougher action against China on trade. Imports of goods and services from China by the United States reached $450.4 billion in 2020, according to the United States Trade Representative, with electrical machinery composing $111 billion of the imports while $97 billion came from machinery, leading to a $310.3 billion trade deficit.
The Biden administration is considering easing restrictions on American investments in the People’s Republic of China via executive order, Politico reported in March.
Some proponents of cutting trade ties with China or reducing dependence on that county, like Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, cite that country’s conduct, including deploying a spy balloon that crossed the United States before it was shot down by an Air Force F-22 Raptor on Feb. 4. The Justice Department charged two men in April who helped operate a “police station” in New York City for Chinese authorities, and allegedly used it to harass and target dissidents.
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