US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday held a virtual meeting with China’s Vice Premier Liu He, discussing plans for economic recovery and ”frankly” tackling issues of concern, according to a readout issued here. Yellen noted that she looks forward to future discussions with Vice Premier Liu, the Department of Treasury said.

During the meeting, Yellen discussed the Biden-Harris Administration’s plans to support a continued strong economic recovery and the importance of cooperating on areas that are in US interests while at the same time ”frankly” tackling issues of concern, said the readout. Meanwhile, over 200 Republican lawmakers wrote to US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, urging her to hold the Chinese Communist Party (CPP) accountable for its role in causing the COVID-19 pandemic.

We request that you instruct the appropriate Democrat committee chairs to immediately join Republican calls to hold the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) accountable for its role in causing the global COVID-19 pandemic. There is mounting evidence the pandemic started in a Chinese lab and the CCP covered it up. If that is the case, the CCP is responsible for the deaths of almost 600,000 Americans and millions more worldwide, the lawmakers said.

These questions about the CCP’s liability are not a diversion as you falsely claimed. On the contrary, every American family that lost someone deserves answers about the origin of this terrible virus and House Democrats’ ongoing refusal to allocate investigative resources to get those answers is an affront to them, wrote the Republican lawmakers. Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler, a Commissioner of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) and a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, in a video message said that the growing threat of China is much larger than many Americans realise, warranting the need for American leaders to stand up, speak out and educate the public on the extent of dangers.

In a separate move, Senator Steve Daines introduced a Senate resolution stating any treaty that limits the United States’ ballistic missile arsenal must impose the same limits on both Russia and China and it must be subject to consent from the US Senate. ”Since the United States first entered the INF treaty with Russia, China has been developing and building an arsenal of ballistic missiles,” Daines said. ”Any treaty moving forward must hold both Russia and China to the same standards, and it must be approved by the Senate according to the Constitution,” he said.