US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen criticized China’s treatment of US companies and new export controls on metals used in semiconductors during a Friday visit to Beijing to try to rekindle tense relations.

Speaking to a group of businessmen, Yellen defended US controls on technology exports that irritate Beijing, saying they are necessary for national security. She rejected suggestions that Washington is trying to decouple the US economy from China’s.

“The U.S. is seeking healthy economic competition with China,” Yellen said, according to a transcript released by her department.

I’m communicating the concerns I’ve heard from corporate America, including China’s use of non-market tools, such as extensive subsidies for state-owned and domestic companies, and barriers to market entry for foreign companies, Yellen said.

US-China relations are at their lowest level in decades due to disputes over technology, security, Beijing’s military expansion and other irritating factors.

Yellen met with outgoing central bank governor Yi Gang and former vice premier Liu He, formerly her counterpart in financial talks, on Friday, according to the finance ministry. She was due to meet later with China’s No. 2 leaders, Premier Li Qiang.

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Treasury officials previously said Yellen would not meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. They said no major litigation breakthroughs were expected.

China’s finance ministry called Yellen’s visit a concrete move to implement an agreement between Xi and President Biden at a November meeting to improve relations. It gave no indication of possible initiatives or compromises.

There will be no winners in trade wars or “disconnection and broken chains,” the ministry said in a statement. We hope that the United States will take concrete measures to create an environment conducive to the healthy development of economic and trade relations.

U.S. and other foreign companies are concerned about their status in China following raids on consulting firms, the expansion of a national security law, and calls by Xi and other officials for greater self-sufficiency.

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I am particularly troubled by the punitive measures taken against US companies in recent months, Yellen said.

The Chinese government is frustrated by US restrictions on access to advanced processor chips for security reasons. That threatens to slow down or derail the efforts of the ruling Communist Party to develop telecoms, artificial intelligence and other technologies.

Xi accused Washington in March of trying to hinder China’s development.

Beijing has been slow to retaliate, possibly to avoid disrupting its own tech industry. But this week the government announced unspecified controls on the export of gallium and germanium, metals used in making semiconductors and solar panels. That announcement shocked South Korea and other countries that import from China.

Entrepreneurs have warned that the world’s two largest economies could split into separate markets with incompatible products if the US and China tighten trade controls and tell companies to become less dependent on the other country. They say this will hurt economic growth and innovation.

I’ve made it clear that the United States is not striving for a complete separation of our economies, Yellen said. A decoupling of the world’s two largest economies would destabilize the global economy and would be virtually impossible.

Yellen defended US export restrictions and rejected Chinese accusations that Washington is using them for economic advantage.

I also made it clear that actions we take to protect our national security are designed to be narrowly focused and are based on simple national security considerations and are not being taken to gain economic advantage against China, Yellen said.

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Yellen follows Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who met Xi last month during the largest US visit to Beijing in five years. The two agreed to stabilize relations, but could not agree on improving communications between their armies.

Treasury officials previously told reporters in Washington that Yellen wanted to focus on stabilizing the global economy and challenging China’s support for Russia during its invasion of Ukraine.

The latest flare-up in China-US ties came after Biden called Xi a dictator. The Chinese government protested, but Biden said I’m just not going to change his blunt statements much.

Ties became particularly irritable after a Chinese surveillance balloon flew over the United States in February and was subsequently shot down.

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Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry is slated to become the next U.S. official to visit China next week, a State Department official confirmed Thursday.

China and the United States are number 1 in the world. 1 and no. 2 emitters of climate-changing carbon, making every step they take critical.

The trip will be Kerry’s first visit to China since climate talks with the US broke down in August in retaliation for then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosis’s visit to Taiwan.