Janet Yellen to Say Security Comes Before Economy in U.S.-China Relationship
Treasury secretary to give a speech laying out Biden administration’s China policy
WASHINGTON—Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to say Thursday that the U.S.’s policies toward China will give priority to addressing national-security concerns over preserving economic growth.
In prepared excerpts of a speech she will give, Ms. Yellen listed three goals for the U.S. relationship with China: protecting human rights and national security, establishing healthy economic ties and cooperating on major global issues. She criticized subsidies the Chinese government offers to its industries and said the U.S. will remain the world’s dominant economic power.
The Biden administration is pushing to reorient the U.S. economy—as well as the economies of its close allies—away from China. Western officials are concerned about their dependence on China for materials such as minerals used in electric-vehicle batteries, worried that Beijing could cut them off in a conflict.