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.
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