U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner arrived in Beijing Sunday afternoon, hoping to steer a closer relationship with China under the new U.S. era, Xinhua reported.
This is Geithner's first visit to the country since taking office in January, though he studied Mandarin at Beijing universities in the 1980s.
Geithner is also the first U.S. cabinet member to visit Beijing since Chinese President Hu Jintao and U.S. President Barack Obama first met in April and agreed on building a "positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship for the 21st century."
"We have an obligation to make sure that as we fix the crisis, we are putting in place a better foundation for a more balanced and sustained world recovery," Geithner said before his departure.
Geither is expected to meet with Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice Premier Wang Qishan, as well as deliver a speech at the Peking University.
Geithner and Chinese leaders will discuss how to "strengthen U.S.-China economic ties to promote stable, balanced and sustained economic growth in the two nations," said the U.S. Treasury Department in a statement.
"Geithner comes to pave the way for the first China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington D.C. this summer," according to the Chinese diplomatic source.
The new dialogue mechanism came out of the Hu-Obama meeting in London. Its strategic track will be chaired by Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, while its economic track will be chaired by Wang and Geithner, as special representatives of their respective presidents.
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