Yellen Travels To China Amid Critical Mineral Restrictions

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will arrive in Beijing tomorrow for her first visit to China since assuming the Treasury top job two years ago.

• Her visit comes amid another period of turbulence which has seen China make its first significantly counterplay to US-led chip restrictions by announcing export controls on Germanium and Gallium – two critical and strategic minerals essential to electric vehicle and semiconductor tech.
• Yellen will be tasked with finding areas of economic common grounds and prising open reliable channels of communication with the new Chinese economic team which may lay the groundwork for more productive future cabinet-level meetings.
• US and Chinese officials and analysts have cautioned against expecting any major breakthroughs. Wu Xinbo, at Fudan University in Shanghai, said this week: “Even if her visit does not solve specific issues, it can improve the atmosphere and allow more rational voices within the administration to surface.”
• Yellen will be further tasked with convincing Beijing that measures to restrict China’s access high-tech components are in the interest of US national security rather than designed to restrain China’s economic growth, an assertion which Beijing has publicly rejected.