The comments are the closest Yellen, 78, has come to announcing her future plans as the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump heats up. Yellen is the first woman to serve as Treasury secretary, Federal Reserve chair and director of the White House National Economic Council.
Yellen said at the Austin event that she still has plenty of work to do at Treasury in the coming months, including another likely meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, her counterpart in Beijing, to try to manage an often-tense relationship.
The two met in Beijing in April, where Yellen warned China to curb industrial overcapacity ahead of Biden’s decision to impose steep tariff increases on Chinese-made electric vehicles, batteries, solar products and semiconductors.
Yellen said she would welcome a visit to the United States but might also return to China herself, adding: “My guess is that we will have, one way or another, a visit.”
The Treasury’s top economic diplomat, Deputy Secretary Jay Shambaugh, will lead a delegation to Beijing “very soon” to discuss economic issues. Shambaugh heads a U.S.-China economic working group that has made the issue of China’s factory glut a priority.
Yellen said the U.S.-China relationship “must be prioritized and nurtured” by the next U.S. administration, with discussions at the highest level and among agency staff.
“We have enough differences that without the opportunity to discuss them and put them in context, it’s certainly possible that tensions will escalate,” Yellen said. “So this is something that really requires continued attention. I hope that he gets it.”
