partners and we will protect human rights yellen said in her speech we will clearly communicate to the prc our concerns about its behavior us trade representative katherine tai also struck a relatively conciliatory tone in tokyo this week in response to a reporters question about whether washington is trying to decouple the american economy from chinas tai who is on her fourth visit to japan after being appointed the top us trade envoy said all members of president joe bidens democratic administration have been very clear that it is not the intention to decouple chinas economy us trade sanctions against china are narrowly targeted she said given its huge size and importance unraveling the ties with china that keep the world economy running is not a goal or achievable tai said in a news conference at the foreign correspondents club of japan yellen met with her chinese counterpart vice premier liu he in zurich in january which was the highestranking contact between the two countries since their respective presidents agreed last november during their first inperson meeting to look for areas of potential cooperation on thursday yellen said she wants to visit china at the appropriate time it is important that we make progress on global issues regardless of our other disagreements yellen said thats what the world needs from its two largest economies