Yellen says she's 'concerned' about China's new export controls in her first public remarks in Beijing

BEIJING — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Friday she is "concerned" astir the export controls China announced this week.

China's Ministry of Commerce announced Monday that starting Aug. 1, companies successful China that privation to export 2 metals utilized successful semiconductor manufacturing would need to use for licenses.

"I americium besides acrophobic astir caller export controls precocious announced by China connected 2 captious minerals utilized successful technologies similar semiconductors," Yellen said successful prepared remarks for a gathering with U.S. businesses successful Beijing.

"We are inactive evaluating the interaction of these actions, but they punctual america of the value of gathering resilient and diversified proviso chains."

The Biden medication has announced measures aimed astatine bolstering American tech capabilities and limiting China's entree to precocious tech. Those see sweeping export controls that took effect successful October and restrict the quality of U.S. businesses to sell definite precocious computing semiconductors oregon related manufacturing instrumentality to China.

Yellen said that successful her meetings with the Chinese government, she "made wide that actions we instrumentality to support our nationalist information are designed to beryllium narrowly targeted."

"They are premised connected straightforward nationalist information considerations and not undertaken to summation economical vantage implicit China."

Beijing has truthful acold taken comparatively fewer actions. In May, China said U.S. chipmaker Micron had failed a information review and banned operators of captious infrastructure from buying from the company.

And this week, China's Commerce Ministry announced its forthcoming export prohibition connected the metals gallium and germanium. The ministry said Thursday its caller rules did not people a circumstantial country.

China has meantime doubled-down connected efforts to pull overseas concern and prosecute businesses. The Commerce Ministry said Wednesday it met with 12 overseas pharmaceutical companies to recognize their concern challenges.

Yellen said Friday successful her gathering with American businesses that she's "been peculiarly troubled by punitive actions that person been taken against U.S. firms successful caller months."

Her sojourn to China, Yellen's archetypal nether the Biden administration, follows U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's high-stakes travel to Beijing past month. Blinken besides met with U.S. businesses successful China during his trip.

Yellen, a erstwhile caput of the U.S. Federal Reserve, has mostly emphasized the economical value of the U.S.-China relationship. Mainland China is the second-largest holder of U.S. Treasurys, down Japan.

She said Friday the U.S. "does not seek" to abstracted its system from China's, and that "healthy economical competition" benefits some sides, according to her prepared remarks to businesses.

"In the economical realm, regular exchanges with our Chinese counterparts tin assistance america show economical and fiscal risks, and it tin assistance make the conditions for a steadfast economical narration betwixt our 2 countries," she said.