Yellen Calls Out Forced Labor, Overreliance on Critical Goods From China
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, in an April 20 speech, said China's state-driven economic policies have spillover effects. "The actions of China’s government have had dramatic implications for the location of global manufacturing activity," she said at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. "And they have harmed workers and firms in the U.S. and around the world."
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She said the U.S. does not seek to hold China back from developing and growing richer, adding, "But healthy economic competition -- where both sides benefit -- is only sustainable if that competition is fair. We will continue to partner with our allies to respond to China’s unfair economic practices."
Yellen mentioned human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and noted the U.S. restricts the imports of goods from the province as a result. Sticking up for U.S. values and preserving national security matters, even if there are economic trade-offs, she said. "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," she added.
Still, she said, lessening dependence on Chinese imports is important. "In certain sectors, China’s unfair economic practices have resulted in the over-concentration of the production of critical goods inside China," Yellen said. Under President Joe Biden’s leadership, "we are not only investing in manufacturing at home. We are also pursuing a strategy called 'friendshoring' that is aimed at mitigating vulnerabilities that can lead to supply disruptions," she said. "We are creating redundancies in our critical supply chains with the large number of trading partners that we can count on."