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Biden brings message of cooperation to China

Other News Materials 17 August 2011 15:10 (UTC +04:00)
US Vice President Joe Biden has urged the United States and China to cooperate on shared global challenges ahead of his scheduled arrival in Beijing later Wednesday, state media said.
Biden brings message of cooperation to China

US Vice President Joe Biden has urged the United States and China to cooperate on shared global challenges ahead of his scheduled arrival in Beijing later Wednesday, state media said.

"For me and President (Barack) Obama, the bottom line is that the United States and China will face many similar challenges and share many responsibilities as two big nations with global roles in the 21st century," Biden told the People's Daily, the official newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party, in Washington.

"We believe that the more we act together on those issues, the more our people and the world will benefit," Biden was quoted as saying, DPA reported.

He said the United States aimed to put relations with China "on a steady and sustainable track for the coming decades."

In a commentary on Wednesday, the official Xinhua news agency called Biden's trip "a timely visit to ease concerns and boost ties."

Biden said Chinese companies were welcome to invest in the United States and benefit from its "open, transparent and non-discriminatory" policies, an apparent attempt to reassure China in the face of political opposition to some Chinese investments.

He said the US government planned to revise rules that restrict exports of some high-technology products to China, a move that Chinese officials have requested many times in recent years.

Biden said only about 1 per cent of US exports to China last year had required export permits.

"We believe we can utilize many other effective ways to expand trade and achieve a more balanced economic relationship," he told the newspaper.

To reduce its trade deficit with China, which was 273 billion dollars in 2010, the United States has urged China to let its currency appreciate and remove barriers to imports.

Biden was also expected to discuss US financial problems and its arms sales to Taiwan during talks with Chinese leaders on Thursday and Friday.

US officials said he planned to outline his country's deficit reduction plan to China, the United States' biggest creditor.

China has expressed concern, given its heavy investment in US Treasury bonds, that the deal did not go far enough.

But Biden will stress that the US is committed to addressing the challenge, Lael Brainard, Treasury Department undersecretary for international affairs, said before the trip.

Biden is scheduled to meet Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who is expected to succeed President Hu Jintao as Communist Party leader late next year and state head in early 2013. He will also meet Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao.

His itinerary includes a two-day trip to the south-western city of Chengdu to speak at a university on US-China relations and visit an area hit by the devastating 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

Following his visit to China, Biden is scheduled to travel to Mongolia and Japan.

His visit to Mongolia on Monday will be the first to the country by a US vice president since 1944.

In Japan, Biden will stress US support of Japanese efforts to rebuild following the devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in March, US officials said.

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