(NewsNation) — As Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is slated to travel to Beijing this week, a former Bush administration official says the U.S. and China must learn to live with each other.
“I think they’re going to have to coexist,” Don Bramer, a former appointee under the George H.W. Bush administration, said during an appearance Monday on “The Hill on NewsNation.”
Yellen is expected to make her trip to China on Thursday in an effort to ease tensions between the U.S. and that nation. She has previously said the two countries “can and need to find a way to live together.” Bramer thinks the U.S. should strengthen relationships with other countries.
“What I would really like to see us do is work to develop strong relations with our other allies in the region,” Bramer said. “We have strong relationships with Japan, who are definitely stepping up their interest and participation in NATO. We have India. We have Australia. We have New Zealand.”
He continued: “Should things come awry, we need to rely on our allies because they do have a larger military force than the U.S. and we’re going to need every friend we can to support our manufacturing but also to support our national security.”
Yellen’s visit follows Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s brief stop in Beijing in June. Blinken met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, where they agreed to stabilize deteriorating U.S.-China ties but better communications between militaries could not be agreed upon.
“Blinken was there. I don’t think we saw the results that we wanted from that trip,” Bramer said. “Just a few days ago, China came out and announced they’re looking to strengthen ties, to encourage more relations with Russia.”
Bramer added: “We’ve got a lot going on there (in China) between arbitrary laws, between human rights violations and then shoring up our own supply chain and manufacturing here in the U.S.”
Officials have not named who Yellen will meet with but did say it would not be Xi. She is scheduled to stay through July 9.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.