US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to China this week to restore ties, the Treasury Department announced on Sunday.

She would discuss "the importance for our countries — as the world's two largest economies — to responsibly manage our relationship, communicate directly about areas of concern, and work together to address global challenges," the statement said.

Yellen, who will be in Beijing from July 6-9, will meet with high-ranking representatives of the Chinese government but not China's President Xi Jinping.

Why Yellen is visiting China

The trip comes as part of a push by US President Joe Biden to deepen communications between the world's two largest economies.

"We seek a healthy economic relationship with China, one that fosters growth and innovation in both countries,"  a senior Treasury official said. "We do not seek to decouple our economies. A full cessation of trade and investment would be destabilizing for both our countries and the global economy."

Yellen would, however underscore Washington's determination to strengthen its own competitiveness while responding with allies to what Washington calls "economic coercion" and unfair economic practices by China.

Officials added the US was not expecting a "significant breakthrough" from the trip.

US making strides for better ties with China

Relations between the two countries took a nosedive this year when the US shot down a Chinese balloon it said was used for surveillance — a claim China strongly denied.

Yellen's trip to China comes just weeks after Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited China and met Xi and Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing in June.

Blinken was the highest-ranking US official to visit Beijing in the past five years and his meeting in Beijing was seen as emblematic of lowering of tensions between the two countries.

During Blinken's visit, Xi had said that he saw headway in the strained relationship between Washington and Beijing.

mf/lo (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)