Top Chinese and US leaders have agreed to meet later this month in Washington for the first “strategic and economic dialogue” with the Obama administration.
The new high-level discussions, set for July 27 and July 28, are an extension of economic talks begun under former president George W. Bush, but with a broader focus.
The dialogue “will focus on addressing the challenges and opportunities that both countries face on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global areas of immediate and long-term strategic and economic interests,” a joint statement from the US Treasury and State departments said on Monday.
The dialogue’s first meeting, it added “will also set the stage for intensive, ongoing and future bilateral cooperative mechanisms.”
China said yesterday the global financial crisis would be a top priority in the talks.
“We believe that how to address the deepening and spreading of the global financial crisis and promoting the recovery of the world economy will be a major topic of the dialogue,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) said.
“We hope that through this dialogue we can exchange views on China-US relations and strategic and long-standing issues so as to enhance mutual trust and mutually beneficial cooperation,” Qin said.
The meeting is the first in a series agreed to by US President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) that replaces a “strategic economic dialogue” established by the Bush administration and Beijing.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will be joined by their respective Chinese co-chairs, State Councillor Dai Bingguo (戴秉國) and Vice Premier Wang Qishan (王岐山).
The talks aim to broaden the dialogue established by the Bush administration to a “cross-cutting structure that addresses the geopolitical nature of our mutual concerns in strategic and economic discussions,” the US Treasury said.
The structure of the talks “allows for a plenary session to discuss issues of cross-cutting strategic and economic importance, while maintaining distinct strategic and economic tracks,” it said.
On the economic side, the talks are expected to address the massive US trade deficit with China and exchange rates, amid concern in the US that Beijing is keeping the yuan artificially low to bolster its exports.
Chinese officials have also expressed concern about the value of their massive US bond holdings in the face of a growing US budget deficit.
China is the largest creditor to the US, with US$763.5 billion invested in Treasury bonds, June Treasury data showed.
Some Chinese officials earlier this year floated the idea of replacing the dollar with a basket of currencies as the benchmark global unit.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the