SAN FRANCISCO: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will begin two days of meetings with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Thursday in a bid to limit the economic fallout from tensions between Washington and Beijing and keep the lines of communication open on topics from national security to climate change.

US Treasury officials have sought to downplay expectations for any breakthroughs from the meetings in San Francisco, where US President Joe Biden next week will host a summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) country leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Biden and Xi are expected to steal the spotlight with a planned meeting on the summit sidelines. Yellen’s second face-to-face meeting with He since she visited Beijing in July is among a series of cabinet-level engagements that paved the way for the two leaders to meet.

Yellen intends to reiterate her view that the US and China cannot decouple and instead must pursue a “healthy competition” based on a level playing field and clear communications about their intentions regarding national security restrictions.

She said last week that the Biden administration would not choose a path of separation that would force Asian economies to choose between China and the US Her San Francisco meetings will mark the first in-person gatherings of new US-China economic and financial forums involving staff-level officials from both sides after their launch in October.