Yellen's comments on National Public Radio's Marketplace program come after a four-day visit to Beijing during which she met with China's new economic leadership team.
"There are challenges, but I believe there is a desire on both sides to stabilize the relationship and to constructively address problems that each of us see," Yellen said of the world's two biggest economies.
The aim is to do so "frankly, with candor, with respect and to build a productive relationship going forward," she added.
Calling her trip successful, Yellen added that the United States and China have "grown apart" with misunderstandings developing between them.
To put a floor under relations and improve them eventually, "it's necessary to meet to discuss our differences openly with respect, candidly, and to develop channels of regular communication," she said.
"That certainly was a major goal of my trip. I think it was successful in that sense," she told Marketplace.
Yellen met with officials including Premier Li Qiang, Vice Premier He Lifeng, Finance Minister Liu Kun and Pan Gongsheng, whom US officials described as the head of China's central bank.
While the visit did not produce specific breakthroughs, Washington and Beijing have agreed to continue exchanges.
Yellen said the United States is open to hearing Chinese concerns and when asked about reciprocity, she said: "We fully expect to have more frequent communications at many different levels and have opportunities to explore concerns."
With trade curbs high on the laundry list of disagreements, Yellen told journalists Sunday that new moves would be implemented in "a transparent way" and "narrowly" at sectors where there are specific national security worries.
"I want to allay their fears that we would do something that would have broad-based impacts on the Chinese economy," she said.
A Treasury official said on condition of anonymity that both sides talked about what US curbs on outbound investments might hypothetically look like.
Both sides also spoke at length about market access and China's treatment of US firms, the official said, adding that Washington is keen on more high-level engagements.
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