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Fact sheet: president xi jinping's state visit to the united states.

On September 24-25, 2015, President Barack Obama hosted President Xi Jinping of China for a State visit. The two heads of state exchanged views on a range of global, regional, and bilateral subjects. President Obama and President Xi agreed to work together to constructively manage our differences and decided to expand and deepen cooperation in the following areas:

Addressing Global and Regional Challenges

• Afghanistan- The United States and China decided to maintain communication and cooperation with one another on Afghanistan to support peaceful reconstruction and economic development in Afghanistan, support an "Afghan led, Afghan owned" reconciliation process, and promote trilateral dialogue among the United States, China, and Afghanistan. Together with Afghanistan, the United States and China will co-chair a high-level event on Afghanistan's reconstruction and development on the margins of the UN General Assembly on September 26. This event will convene Afghanistan's neighbors and the international community to discuss the importance of continuing robust regional and international support for the Afghan government and regional economic cooperation. The United States and China jointly renew their call on the Taliban to enter into direct talks with the Government of Afghanistan. The United States and China also noted their mutual interests in supporting peace, stability, and prosperity in neighboring countries of Afghanistan, and to working in partnership with these countries to promote peace and stability in Afghanistan and the region. • Peacekeeping - In recognition of the critical role UN and regional peacekeepers serve in maintaining international peace and security, the United States and China affirm to further increase their robust commitments to international peacekeeping efforts. The Chinese side appreciates the U.S. side's holding of the Leaders' Summit on Peacekeeping, and welcomes the new contributions to be announced by the United States to support peace operations. The United States welcomes the new contributions to be announced by China to support UN peacekeeping efforts. The United States and China recognize the need to deepen the partnership between the African Union and the United Nations on peace operations. Both sides look forward to an enhanced discussion with the African Union and other partners to further explore proposals to this end. Both sides decided to continue discussions to deepen cooperation on capacity building for troop- and police-contributing countries. • Nuclear Security- The United States and China commit to deepen their cooperation on nuclear security and to work together to make the Nuclear Security Summit hosted by President Obama next year a success. The two sides plan to hold an annual bilateral dialogue on nuclear security, with the first meeting of the dialogue to be held prior to the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit. • Wildlife Trafficking- The United States and China, recognizing the importance and urgency of combating wildlife trafficking, commit to take positive measures to address this global challenge. The United States and China commit to enact nearly complete bans on ivory import and export, including significant and timely restrictions on the import of ivory as hunting trophies, and to take significant and timely steps to halt the domestic commercial trade of ivory. The two sides decided to further cooperate in joint training, technical exchanges, information sharing, and public education on combating wildlife trafficking, and enhance international law enforcement cooperation in this field. The United States and China decided to cooperate with other nations in a comprehensive effort to combat wildlife trafficking. • Ocean Conservation- The United States and China intend to pursue actively cooperation on polar and ocean matters, including projects related to ocean conservation and expanding joint polar research efforts, and will work together on the proposal to establish a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in Antarctica's Ross Sea. The two sides also plan to support additional bilateral efforts in these fields, including ocean acidification monitoring and a partnership between the coastal cities of Xiamen and Weihai in China and San Francisco and New York in the United States to share best practices to reduce the flow of trash into the ocean.

Strengthening Development Cooperation

The United States and China signed a Memorandum of Understanding that establishes a framework for development cooperation to guide our future collaborative efforts. The MOU recognizes our shared objectives in ending extreme poverty and advancing global development through enhanced collaboration and communication under the principle of development raised, agreed, and led by recipient countries.

• 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development . The United States and China are committed to advance sustainable and inclusive international development as laid out in the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, through expanded cooperation to end poverty and hunger and the promotion of inclusive economic growth, and protection of the environment. The two sides intend to communicate and cooperate in implementing the Agenda and to help other countries achieve common development goals. • Food Security- The United States and China decided to enhance cooperation on global food security. The two sides intend to enhance communication and coordination with the government of Timor Leste and share lessons learned in agricultural development and food security while exploring prospects for further cooperation. Separately, the two sides intend to explore opportunities to cooperate on climate smart agriculture to produce more and better food for growing populations, while building the resilience of smallholder farmers. Such efforts may include technical cooperation, such as on climate friendly irrigation and mechanization for smallholder farmers in Africa to advance our shared interest in addressing the impact of climate change and enhancing food security. • Public Health and Global Health Security- The United States and China decided to enhance concrete cooperation in public health and global health security, accelerating full implementation of the World Health Organization International Health Regulations and assisting at-risk countries to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats. The two sides plan to jointly work with the African Union and African Union Member States in the establishment of the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention and collaborate with partner governments in countries in West Africa to strengthen national public health capacities in the wake of Ebola, including strengthening the capacity of the cadres of public health and front line health workers. The two sides intend to enhance communication and exchanges regarding aid for health in West Africa. The two sides plan to continue to support and contribute to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. • Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response- The United States and China decided to expand cooperation on humanitarian response to disasters. The United States and China plan to participate constructively in the May 2016 World Humanitarian Summit. The two sides plan to expand existing cooperation on disaster response through increased support to multilateral mechanisms, including the United Nations International Search and Rescue Advisory Group. The two sides intend to conduct capacity building cooperation for the post-earthquake reconstruction in Nepal through mechanisms that promote collaboration between the international community and the Government of Nepal. • Multilateral Institutions. The United States and China intend to expand their collaboration with international institutions to tackle key global development challenges.

Strengthening Bilateral Relations

• Military Relations- Building on the two Memoranda of Understanding on Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) signed by the United States and China in November 2014, the two sides completed new annexes on air-to-air safety and crisis communications. The two sides committed to continue discussions on additional annexes to the Notification of Major Military Activities CBM, with the United States prioritizing completion of a mechanism for informing the other party of ballistic missile launches. The U.S. Coast Guard and the China Coast Guard have committed to pursue an arrangement whose intended purpose is equivalent to the Rules of Behavior Confidence Building Measure annex on surface-to-surface encounters in the November 2014 Memorandum of Understanding between the United States Department of Defense and the People's Republic of China Ministry of National Defense. • Cybersecurity- o The United States and China agree that timely responses should be provided to requests for information and assistance concerning malicious cyber activities. Further, both sides agree to cooperate, in a manner consistent with their respective national laws and relevant international obligations, with requests to investigate cybercrimes, collect electronic evidence, and mitigate malicious cyber activity emanating from their territory. Both sides also agree to provide updates on the status and results of those investigation to the other side, as appropriate. o The United States and China agree that neither country's government will conduct or knowingly support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors. o Both sides are committed to making common effort to further identify and promote appropriate norms of state behavior in cyberspace within the international community. The United States and China welcome the July 2015 report of the UN Group of Governmental Experts in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International security, which addresses norms of behavior and other crucial issues for international security in cyberspace. The two sides also agree to create a senior experts group for further discussions on this topic. o The United States and China agree to establish a high-level joint dialogue mechanism on fighting cybercrime and related issues. China will designate an official at the ministerial level to be the lead and the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of State Security, Ministry of Justice, and the State Internet and Information Office will participate in the dialogue. The U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and the U.S. Attorney General will co-chair the dialogue, with participation from representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Intelligence Community and other agencies, for the United States. This mechanism will be used to review the timeliness and quality of responses to requests for information and assistance with respect to malicious cyber activity of concern identified by either side. As part of this mechanism, both sides agree to establish a hotline for the escalation of issues that may arise in the course of responding to such requests. Finally, both sides agree that the first meeting of this dialogue will be held by the end of 2015, and will occur twice per year thereafter.

• Law Enforcement and Counterterrorism- President Obama and President Xi decided to continue expanding law enforcement and anti-corruption cooperation, including by enhancing coordination and cooperation on criminal investigations, repatriation of fugitives, and asset recovery issues. The United States and China welcomed recent progress on repatriating Chinese fugitives and illegal immigrants through charter flights and look forward to continuing this cooperation. The United States welcomes China's commitment to consider joining the OECD Working Group on Bribery as a participant in the near future. As a new aspect of the Joint Liaison Group's role as the primary mechanism for law enforcement cooperation, both sides committed to discuss the mutual recognition and enforcement of forfeiture judgments. The two sides condemn all forms of terrorism and committed to expand exchange of information to counter the transnational flow of foreign terrorist fighters. The United States and China held a Counter-Improvised Explosive Devises (IEDs) Workshop on September 14 in Washington, DC, decided on principles for furthering efforts to counter the threat posed by IEDs, and committed to hold a follow-on workshop in China.

• People-to-People Exchange. The United States and China announced two new initiatives to expand the dynamic and positive people-to-people interaction that is the foundation of our bilateral relationship: (1) A 2016 U.S.-China Tourism Year—a cooperative tourism initiative led by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the China National Tourism Administration to expand and shape travel between our countries. This year of collaboration will include events to promote travel between the two countries, support progress on market access, and advance initiatives for both the United States and China to ensure a quality visitor experience for increasing numbers of travelers to and from both nations. (2) A "One Million Strong" initiative led by the 100,000 Strong Foundation that aims to have one million American students studying Mandarin by 2020. "One Million Strong" goals include doubling the number of Mandarin language teachers in the United States through a major investment in teachers colleges; employing technological tools to engage students in underserved and underrepresented communities; and creating "100K Strong States," a subnational consortium of U.S. governors committed to expanding Mandarin language-learning in their states.

Barack Obama, Fact Sheet: President Xi Jinping's State Visit to the United States Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/321688

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Francesco leads a team of reporters in Vietnam that covers top financial and political news in the fast-growing southeast Asian country with a focus on supply chains and manufacturing investments in several sectors, including electronics, semiconductors, automotive and renewables. Before Hanoi, Francesco worked in Brussels on EU affairs. He was also part of Reuters core global team that covered the COVID-19 pandemic and participated in investigations into money laundering and corruption in Europe. He is an eager traveler, always keen to put on a backpack to explore new places.

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Chinese state visits are always hard: A historical perspective

Subscribe to the china bulletin, jeffrey a. bader jeffrey a. bader senior fellow - foreign policy , john l. thornton china center.

September 17, 2015

Chinese President Xi Jinping is visiting the United States next week for his first state visit at a time of considerable turmoil in the relationship. Frictions over numerous issues—in particular Chinese activities in the South China Sea, accusations over cyberespionage, and resurgent concerns over human rights in China—have brought the relationship to what some analysts see as a tipping point , between a relationship that is predominantly cooperative to one that is primarily overt rivalry. Key constituencies in the United States—notably the business community that has traditionally been a pillar of the U.S.-China relationship, as well as nongovernmental organizations, academics, and students of the relationship—can no longer be counted upon to stand up against the relationship’s critics.

No visit is an easy visit

But people who see Xi’s visit as a uniquely perilous event in the history of the relationship, coming at a uniquely perilous time, ignore the history of previous visits by Chinese presidents in the last few decades.

• When Jiang Zemin visited Washington for a state visit in 1997, it was the first time since the gunning down of protestors in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989 that a president had visited either capital. The media and op-ed pages denounced President Clinton for receiving Jiang, with calls for the visit to be cancelled if leading dissidents were not released from prison. The relationship was dogged by Chinese nuclear cooperation with Iran, recent Chinese military exercises in the Taiwan Strait that had led to deployment of American aircraft carriers to the area, and charges that Bill Clinton’s campaign had received covert funding from the Chinese government. Human rights demonstrators in Lafayette Park kept Jiang awake all night during his visit.
• Hu Jintao visited the United States in 2006, expecting that Washington would, as usual treat his trip as a state visit. Anxious over how such a visit would be perceived, the Bush administration squabbled with Beijing over that point for many months. The administration was reacting to conservative critics of China’s persecution of Christians, its pressuring Taiwan’s government to alter Taiwan’s policy toward the Mainland, and to China’s growing power. The result was a hybrid visit, which the Chinese characterized as a “state visit” but the Bush administration did not, with a 21-gun salute in the welcoming ceremony on the White House lawn but no state dinner. A series of gaffes tainted the welcoming ceremony, and President Bush felt compelled to apologize to Hu. The visit left bruised feelings in Beijing.
• Fast forward to 2011, when Hu Jintao made his first state visit to the United States under President Barack Obama. Tensions had grown in 2010 over North Korea, the South China Sea, relations with Japan, perceived currency manipulation, and human rights, and it was only five weeks before the visit that the Chinese finally confirmed that Hu was coming. The conventional wisdom of analysts before the visit was that the timing was unfortunate and it would achieve little. But the visit went reasonably well—in part because expectations were set appropriately low.

So one should be skeptical that a visit by a Chinese president comes at a uniquely difficult time and that the stakes are critical. In fact, the nature of the U.S.-China relationship is such that visits to Washington always seem to come at uniquely difficult times. Another common characteristic is that the Chinese come hoping for a smooth visit with high protocol, minimal substance, and no disagreements. The American side, meanwhile, argues that without major steps to address (our) grievances, the relationship will be set back and the visit will be a failure. That has been the subtext of this Xi visit as well.

In fact, the nature of the U.S.-China relationship is such that visits to Washington always seem to come at uniquely difficult times.

Which is not to say that the visit in fact comes at a propitious time. The Chinese are anxious about the spotlight shining on some of its actions, while Americans interested in a stable relationship fear that a visit highlighting differences will feed into the 2016 presidential campaign and further complicate management of this critically important relationship. These are reasonable fears.

Managing expectations

So what can reasonably be accomplished during the visit? 

The most important thing the two sides could do would be to send reassuring signals to the global community, and specifically to financial markets. In the wake of recent market turbulence that began with a steep drop on the Shanghai stock exchange, the leaders should demonstrate that they recognize and welcome the interdependence of our economies and that they are not descending into a relationship of pure rivalry. They should stress that our mutual interest lies in avoiding unnecessary wild market swings and that we have a joint interest in the growth of both our economies, as well as the success of China’s economic reform program and increased openness to American business and products. 

The Obama administration and the Chinese seem to be tentatively moving toward unveiling a possible high-level dialogue to address cyberhacking (as evidenced by a surprise visit to Washington in early September by China’s top law enforcement official and subsequent leaks that Chinese companies would not be sanctioned before Xi’s arrival for cyber theft of intellectual property). Regardless, the cyber-espionage issue does not lend itself to a quick fix and is likely to bedevil the relationship for years to come. The two sides are likely to announce an agreement to establish communications between military aircraft in international airspace to prevent unplanned hostile encounters. There will be some incremental progress building on the major agreement last November between the two presidents on climate change. Not much should be expected to cool tensions in the South China Sea. 

The two presidents should have a serious strategic dialogue in private on the most important global issues that we face: the Iran nuclear program; counterterrorism in Iraq and Syria; Afghanistan; Russia and Ukraine; and cross-Taiwan Strait relations. They need clarity about how they each think about these issues, the possibilities of cooperation, and the risks of conflict. With Washington dealing with a Middle East marked by chaos and an Eastern Europe facing Russian belligerence, President Obama does not want to see the U.S.-China relationship develop into a third front of tensions. A sharing of strategic perspectives that reveals a common or at least parallel approach to maintaining global stability should help prevent that.

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China Brief: Xi Gears Up for Long-Awaited U.S. Trip

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Xi Gears Up for Long-Awaited U.S. Trip

The chinese leader will meet biden on the sidelines of a san francisco summit in his first visit to the united states since 2017..

• Foreign & Public Diplomacy
• United States
• James Palmer

Welcome to  Foreign Policy ’s China Brief.

The highlights this week: The White House confirms Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States later this month, the Smithsonian National Zoo’s giant pandas depart Washington, and another Chinese financial executive faces a corruption investigation.

Sign up to receive China Brief in your inbox every Tuesday.

Xi’s U.S. Visit Confirmed

The White House has officially confirmed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first visit to the United States since 2017, although the diplomatic details have yet to be hammered out. Xi will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco later this month—a long-anticipated appearance, even if the specifics aren’t yet guaranteed.

The APEC summit starts on Nov. 11, but Xi may fly in later; the leaders’ meeting is on Nov. 17. Given events during Xi’s visit to South Africa in August, where he unexpectedly missed an important speech—perhaps after becoming ill in his travels—the Chinese leader may also build an extra day or two in to his U.S. visit. The Chinese Consulate in San Francisco is already organizing diaspora groups to welcome Xi to the city with fanfare.

Xi will meet U.S. President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the APEC summit, which will mark their first time together in person since a relatively amiable meeting in Bali, Indonesia, during the G-20 summit a year ago. The U.S.-China relationship was already bad then, but it suffered in the months afterward—especially during the spy balloon crisis . The Biden administration has since engaged in a lot of diplomatic repair work, with mixed reception in China.

What does each side want out of the Xi-Biden meeting? China’s priority is likely its stumbling economy. Geopolitical tensions manifest in China as xenophobic crackdowns on foreign businesses and in the United States as growing restraints on technology exports to China; the situation has made U.S. firms increasingly wary of doing business in China. That isn’t the main burden on the Chinese economy—a collapsing real estate market and a local government debt crisis are—but any relief helps.

The United States will prioritize security talks, focusing on nuclear arms control and military-to-military communication . U.S. diplomats fear that a more confrontational attitude toward China, including breaking off some channels due to tensions over Taiwan, could lead to a clash neither side wants. The frequency of near-misses both at sea and in the air of late has augmented those concerns, especially given continuing tensions around Philippine naval activity in the South China Sea.

China has an obvious interest in avoiding an accidental war with the United States, but aggressive nationalism is still de rigueur in Chinese military and security circles, and backing down is hard. One working model here for both Beijing and Washington may be China’s restored relationship with Australia, where a change of government allowed for a reset.

After a quarrel sparked by Australia’s measures against Chinese political interference and a 2020 call for an investigation into the origins of COVID-19, China targeted Australia with an economic coercion campaign similar to those it used against Japan, South Korea, Lithuania, Norway, and others. But the Australian economy shrugged off Chinese hostility as the country diversified its soaring exports ; the coercion campaign failed.

China has since backed down from its bans on Australian coal and other imports, as well as releasing Australian journalist Cheng Lei , who was detained on national security charges in August 2020, at the nadir of relations. A recent visit to China by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was full of smiles and new agreements. It seems like an Australian victory, although the Australian government also put behind-the-scenes pressure on both Australian intelligence and strategy think tanks to go a little softer on Beijing.

Yet Canberra is in a strikingly different geopolitical position from the United States. As fierce as Australian domestic politics can be, it does not compare to the allegations thrown around Washington about politicians’ supposedly treacherous connections to Beijing. Nor does Australia occupy anything close to the U.S. place in the Chinese public psyche. The conflicts between China and the United States aren’t going away, even if they are managed more carefully.

What We’re Following

Pandas depart Washington. As Xi prepares to arrive in the United States, more beloved figures of Chinese diplomacy have left Washington: the Smithsonian National Zoo’s giant pandas . First brought to the United States in 1972, the animals—always technically on loan from China—represented a hope for friendship between the two countries that now seems distant.

China has long employed panda diplomacy as part of a softer approach to the world than the so-called wolf warrior diplomacy that has come to dominate under Xi, but by next year there may be no pandas left in any U.S. zoos (and possibly Australian ones). The panda has also become part of China’s self-image, even representing the country in its own domestic media —sometimes as strong, powerful, and resistant.

However, the association of the hapless bear and the Chinese nation is recent: The rare panda was basically absent from the popular consciousness before the 20th century and not often depicted in art. The arrival of the panda Chi-Chi at the London Zoo in 1958 brought the animals global attention, and Beijing picked up on it—along with the World Wildlife Fund’s adoption of the panda as a symbol of environmental protection in 1961.

A quiet funeral. Former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s funeral passed without incident , thanks in part to restrictions on mourning. (As I noted last week, he also wasn’t a particularly popular figure in the first place.) Nevertheless, Li seems to have become a temporary symbol for Chinese people still holding out hope that the country can return to the days of economic and perhaps even political reform, since he was seen as a more technocratic figure than Xi.

There remains some skepticism about the claim that Li died of a heart attack—perhaps reflective of how much China’s urban upper-middle class has come to distrust the Chinese Communist Party’s word.

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Tech and Business

Executive disappearances. This week, Chinese authorities opened a corruption investigation into Zhang Hongli (also known as Lee Zhang), a former executive vice president at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, one of the country’s largest state banks. He is just one in a series of financial figures to be brought down as part of sector-wide investigations in the last two years.

With experience at Goldman Sachs, Zhang was once a rising star in the industry who played a key role in building dubious links with foreign financial institutions and was close to the family of former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao . (Wen’s billionaire wife, Zhang Peili, built a small empire of her own while her husband was in power.)

Meanwhile, Chen Shaojie, the head of a major gaming platform, was reportedly disappeared by authorities a few weeks ago. It’s common for business figures to be detained for weeks or longer, such as the still-missing banking executive Bao Fan. Such measures can reflect party intimidation of a sector, genuine investigations, or officials’ attempts to seize control of businesses.

Gallup leaves China. The polling and consultancy group Gallup has become the latest foreign firm to leave China, under pressure from authorities who seem increasingly intolerant of independent investigation of Chinese public opinion. As global opinion of China has declined, foreign polling firms have come under attack from Chinese media.

That is a big problem. Chinese officials’ own grasp of what’s happening in China is often weak, and public opinion is especially hard to gauge in a heavily censored and politically threatening environment. The more independent investigation gets shut down, the less the world knows.

James Palmer is a deputy editor at Foreign Policy . Twitter:  @BeijingPalmer

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Chinese leader Xi will sweep through Seattle, Everett, Tacoma

It’s official: Seattle will be the first stop for Chinese President Xi Jinping in the United States when he makes his first state visit to the White House next week.

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When Chinese President Xi Jinping comes to Seattle next week, he’s expected to meet with government officials, tech titans and business bigwigs. But also on his schedule: a meeting with students and faculty at Tacoma’s Lincoln High School.

Xi first visited Tacoma a couple of decades ago when he was a provincial official in China, said Gary Locke, former Washington state governor and U.S. ambassador to China from 2011 to 2014.

“It was proposed by the Chinese” that Xi revisit Tacoma on this trip, Locke said.

Xi, whom some regard as the most powerful Chinese leader since Deng Xiaoping, will be in the Seattle area Tuesday through Thursday, Sept. 22-24.

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It will be Xi’s initial stop in the United States as he makes his first state visit to the White House on Sept. 25.

Xi then will travel to New York City, attending summits from Sept. 26 to 28 to mark the 70th anniversary of the United Nations and deliver an address before the U.N. General Assembly.

“It’s a great honor for the state of Washington to have the Chinese president stopping by, following a tradition of the previous leaders of China stopping off in Seattle as part of their official U.S. visit,” Locke said. “It just signifies the deep ties between Washington and China, historically, culturally and economically.”

During his Seattle visit, Xi is expected to attend several events. These include:

• A banquet Tuesday evening at the Westin Hotel in downtown Seattle, where Xi is expected to give his only policy speech of the trip. The banquet will also be attended by dignitaries including former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

• Meetings with leaders of U.S. and Chinese tech companies that will be held at the Microsoft campus in Redmond as part of the annual U.S.-China Internet Industry Forum.

Lu Wei, who oversees China’s Internet policies and cybersecurity, will be attending the forum, according to The New York Times , which first reported on the tech forum.

Apple CEO Tim Cook plans to attend, according to the Times report, which also said CEOs from Baidu, Facebook, IBM, Google and Uber have been invited. Jack Ma, founder of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, confirmed his attendance, according to Bloomberg News .

• A roundtable with CEOs from U.S. companies and an equal number of Chinese counterparts, across a broad range of industries including auto, aircraft, entertainment, tourism, chemicals, finance and technology. The executives are expected to talk about gaining greater access to each other’s markets and about their views on China’s economic-reform efforts, according to The Wall Street Journal , which first reported on the roundtable.

The roundtable is organized by the Paulson Institute, a Chicago-based nonpartisan center, founded by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, that focuses on sustainable economic growth in the U.S. and China.

• A tour of Boeing’s Everett factory, its largest production site for commercial airplanes. The company delivered 155 airplanes to China last year. Boeing said that Chairman Jim McNerney, President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg and Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Ray Conner will be on hand to welcome Xi.

• A meeting with several governors from other U.S. states.

• A private gathering with members of the Chinese community on the West Coast.

The visit by Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, to the Tacoma high school comes 21 years after Tacoma and Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province on China’s southeastern coast, established a sister-city relationship. Back then, Xi was chairman of the standing committee of Fuzhou Municipal People’s Congress.

“Since 1994, our cities have both benefited from a variety of educational, cultural and sports exchanges, and Tacoma has hosted at least 30 delegations from Fuzhou,” Marilyn Strickland, mayor of Tacoma, said in a news release.

Several Lincoln High School teachers and Tacoma school-district administrators have visited Fuzhou, according to the city of Tacoma.

The school is one of Tacoma’s most diverse, and more than 13 percent of students there have some Asian heritage, according to The News Tribune , which also reported that Xi last visited Tacoma in 1993.

Locke, along with former Gov. Chris Gregoire, led a 30-person welcoming committee planning the visit, as well as a smaller host committee.

The host committee includes high-profile local leaders such as Ray Conner, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes; Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO; Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman and CEO; Ana Mari Cauce, interim president of the University of Washington; and Assunta Ng, founder and publisher of Seattle Chinese Post and Northwest Asian Weekly.

The stop in Seattle, before Xi heads to the East Coast for a meeting with President Obama and a presentation before the U.N. General Assembly, could be a feel-good stop for both Xi and Washington state.

China is the state’s top trading partner, with Boeing and Microsoft prominent among companies doing business with China.

“Over the years, Washington companies have developed strong ties with China, and hundreds of millions of citizens use products from Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks and other Washington companies on a daily basis,” Gov. Jay Inslee wrote in his invitation to Xi, according to a news release confirming the visit.

Numerous partnerships have been formed between businesses, universities and cities in China and Washington state. This year, the University of Washington and Tsinghua University of Beijing announced a partnership to run a graduate institute in Bellevue, focusing on technology and innovation — the first time a Chinese research university has established a physical presence in the United States.

The Seattle area has played host to several Chinese leaders over the years, from Deng Xiaoping in 1979 to Jiang Zemin in 1993 and Hu Jintao in 2006.

The visit from Xi again highlights the importance of the state to China.

“Washington state and China have a 35-year history of mutually beneficial partnerships, including robust trade, scientific research, international education and sustainable development,” Kristi Heim, executive director of the Washington State China Relations Council, said in the news release. “We can leverage our region’s unique strengths to create a strong positive impact on the future of U.S.-China relations.”

For Xi, who has rapidly consolidated power in China but now faces questions about his management of a slowing economy, a visit to Seattle will probably be a gentler welcome to the United States than he’s likely to receive later next week in D.C., where he’ll face a list of contentious issues — from economic tensions, to his country’s increasing military assertiveness in the South China Sea, to alleged cyberattacks by Chinese hackers.

• INSTITUTIONS

HANOI, Dec. 12 -- Vietnam rolled out the red carpet on Tuesday for Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chinese president, as he started his state visit to the country with the aim of boosting bilateral ties and cooperation.

During the two-day visit, the two sides will discuss upgrading China-Vietnam relations and work to deepen and substantiate the comprehensive strategic cooperation between the two countries, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said earlier.

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FACT SHEET: President Xi Jinping’s State Visit to the United States

On September 24-25, 2015, President Barack Obama hosted President Xi Jinping of China for a State visit.  The two heads of state exchanged views on a range of global, regional, and bilateral subjects.  President Obama and President Xi agreed to work together to constructively manage our differences and decided to expand and deepen cooperation in the following areas: 

Addressing Global and Regional Challenges

• Afghanistan-  The United States and China decided to maintain communication and cooperation with one another on Afghanistan to support peaceful reconstruction and economic development in Afghanistan, support an “Afghan led, Afghan owned” reconciliation process, and promote trilateral dialogue among the United States, China, and Afghanistan.  Together with Afghanistan, the United States and China will co-chair a high-level event on Afghanistan’s reconstruction and development on the margins of the UN General Assembly on September 26.  This event will convene Afghanistan’s neighbors and the international community to discuss the importance of continuing robust regional and international support for the Afghan government and regional economic cooperation.  The United States and China jointly renew their call on the Taliban to enter into direct talks with the Government of Afghanistan.  The United States and China also noted their mutual interests in supporting peace, stability, and prosperity in neighboring countries of Afghanistan, and to working in partnership with these countries to promote peace and stability in Afghanistan and the region.
• Peacekeeping -  In recognition of the critical role UN and regional peacekeepers serve in maintaining international peace and security, the United States and China affirm to further increase their robust commitments to international peacekeeping efforts.  The Chinese side appreciates the U.S. side’s holding of the Leaders’ Summit on Peacekeeping, and welcomes the new contributions to be announced by the United States to support peace operations. The United States welcomes the new contributions to be announced by China to support UN peacekeeping efforts.  The United States and China recognize the need to deepen the partnership between the African Union and the United Nations on peace operations.  Both sides look forward to an enhanced discussion with the African Union and other partners to further explore proposals to this end.  Both sides decided to continue discussions to deepen cooperation on capacity building for troop- and police-contributing countries.
• Nuclear Security-  The United States and China commit to deepen their cooperation on nuclear security and to work together to make the Nuclear Security Summit hosted by President Obama next year a success.  The two sides plan to hold an annual bilateral dialogue on nuclear security, with the first meeting of the dialogue to be held prior to the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit. 
• Wildlife Trafficking-  The United States and China, recognizing the importance and urgency of combating wildlife trafficking, commit to take positive measures to address this global challenge.  The United States and China commit to enact nearly complete bans on ivory import and export, including significant and timely restrictions on the import of ivory as hunting trophies, and to take significant and timely steps to halt the domestic commercial trade of ivory.  The two sides decided to further cooperate in joint training, technical exchanges, information sharing, and public education on combating wildlife trafficking, and enhance international law enforcement cooperation in this field.  The United States and China decided to cooperate with other nations in a comprehensive effort to combat wildlife trafficking. 
• Ocean Conservation-  The United States and China intend to pursue actively cooperation on polar and ocean matters, including projects related to ocean conservation and expanding joint polar research efforts, and will work together on the proposal to establish a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in Antarctica’s Ross Sea.  The two sides also plan to support additional bilateral efforts in these fields, including ocean acidification monitoring and a partnership between the coastal cities of Xiamen and Weihai in China and San Francisco and New York in the United States to share best practices to reduce the flow of trash into the ocean.

Strengthening Development Cooperation

The United States and China signed a Memorandum of Understanding that establishes a framework for development cooperation to guide our future collaborative efforts.  The MOU recognizes our shared objectives in ending extreme poverty and advancing global development through enhanced collaboration and communication under the principle of development raised, agreed, and led by recipient countries.  

• 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development .  The United States and China are committed to advance sustainable and inclusive international development as laid out in the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, through expanded cooperation to end poverty and hunger and the promotion of inclusive economic growth, and protection of the environment.  The two sides intend to communicate and cooperate in implementing the Agenda and to help other countries achieve common development goals.
• Food Security-  The United States and China decided to enhance cooperation on global food security.  The two sides intend to enhance communication and coordination with the government of Timor Leste and share lessons learned in agricultural development and food security while exploring prospects for further cooperation.  Separately, the two sides intend to explore opportunities to cooperate on climate smart agriculture to produce more and better food for growing populations, while building the resilience of smallholder farmers.  Such efforts may include technical cooperation, such as on climate friendly irrigation and mechanization for smallholder farmers in Africa to advance our shared interest in addressing the impact of climate change and enhancing food security.
• Public Health and Global Health Security-   The United States and China decided to enhance concrete cooperation in public health and global health security, accelerating full implementation of the World Health Organization International Health Regulations and assisting at-risk countries to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats.  The two sides plan to jointly work with the African Union and African Union Member States in the establishment of the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention and collaborate with partner governments in countries in West Africa to strengthen national public health capacities in the wake of Ebola, including strengthening the capacity of the cadres of public health and front line health workers.  The two sides intend to enhance communication and exchanges regarding aid for health in West Africa.  The two sides plan to continue to support and contribute to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
• Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response-  The United States and China decided to expand cooperation on humanitarian response to disasters.  The United States and China plan to participate constructively in the May 2016 World Humanitarian Summit.  The two sides plan to expand existing cooperation on disaster response through increased support to multilateral mechanisms, including the United Nations International Search and Rescue Advisory Group.  The two sides intend to conduct capacity building cooperation for the post-earthquake reconstruction in Nepal through mechanisms that promote collaboration between the international community and the Government of Nepal.
• Multilateral Institutions.   The United States and China intend to expand their collaboration with international institutions to tackle key global development challenges.

Strengthening Bilateral Relations

• Military Relations-  Building on the two Memoranda of Understanding on Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) signed by the United States and China in November 2014, the two sides completed new annexes on air-to-air safety and crisis communications. The two sides committed to continue discussions on additional annexes to the Notification of Major Military Activities CBM, with the United States prioritizing completion of a mechanism for informing the other party of ballistic missile launches.  The U.S. Coast Guard and the China Coast Guard have committed to pursue an arrangement whose intended purpose is equivalent to the Rules of Behavior Confidence Building Measure annex on surface-to-surface encounters in the November 2014 Memorandum of Understanding between the United States Department of Defense and the People's Republic of China Ministry of National Defense.
• The United States and China agree that timely responses should be provided to requests for information and assistance concerning malicious cyber activities.  Further, both sides agree to cooperate, in a manner consistent with their respective national laws and relevant international obligations, with requests to investigate cybercrimes, collect electronic evidence, and mitigate malicious cyber activity emanating from their territory.  Both sides also agree to provide updates on the status and results of those investigation to the other side, as appropriate. 
• The United States and China agree that neither country’s government will conduct or knowingly support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors. 
• Both sides are committed to making common effort to further identify and promote appropriate norms of state behavior in cyberspace within the international community.  The United States and China welcome the July 2015 report of the UN Group of Governmental Experts in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International security, which addresses norms of behavior and other crucial issues for international security in cyberspace.  The two sides also agree to create a senior experts group for further discussions on this topic. 
• The United States and China agree to establish a high-level joint dialogue mechanism on fighting cybercrime and related issues.  China will designate an official at the ministerial level to be the lead and the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of State Security, Ministry of Justice, and the State Internet and Information Office will participate in the dialogue.  The U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and the U.S. Attorney General will co-chair the dialogue, with participation from representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Intelligence Community and other agencies, for the United States.  This mechanism will be used to review the timeliness and quality of responses to requests for information and assistance with respect to malicious cyber activity of concern identified by either side.  As part of this mechanism, both sides agree to establish a hotline for the escalation of issues that may arise in the course of responding to such requests.  Finally, both sides agree that the first meeting of this dialogue will be held by the end of 2015, and will occur twice per year thereafter.
• Law Enforcement and Counterterrorism- President Obama and President Xi decided to continue expanding law enforcement and anti-corruption cooperation, including by enhancing coordination and cooperation on criminal investigations, repatriation of fugitives, and asset recovery issues.  The United States and China welcomed recent progress on repatriating Chinese fugitives and illegal immigrants through charter flights and look forward to continuing this cooperation.  The United States welcomes China’s commitment to consider joining the OECD Working Group on Bribery as a participant in the near future.  As a new aspect of the Joint Liaison Group's role as the primary mechanism for law enforcement cooperation, both sides committed to discuss the mutual recognition and enforcement of forfeiture judgments.  The two sides condemn all forms of terrorism and committed to expand exchange of information to counter the transnational flow of foreign terrorist fighters.  The United States and China held a Counter-Improvised Explosive Devises (IEDs) Workshop on September 14 in Washington, DC, decided on principles for furthering efforts to counter the threat posed by IEDs, and committed to hold a follow-on workshop in China.  
• People-to-People Exchange.   The United States and China announced two new initiatives to expand the dynamic and positive people-to-people interaction that is the foundation of our bilateral relationship: (1) A 2016 U.S.-China Tourism Year—a cooperative tourism initiative led by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the China National Tourism Administration to expand and shape travel between our countries.  This year of collaboration will include events to promote travel between the two countries, support progress on market access, and advance initiatives for both the United States and China to ensure a quality visitor experience for increasing numbers of travelers to and from both nations.  (2)  A “One Million Strong” initiative led by the 100,000 Strong Foundation that aims to have one million American students studying Mandarin by 2020. “One Million Strong” goals include doubling the number of Mandarin language teachers in the United States through a major investment in teachers colleges; employing technological tools to engage students in underserved and underrepresented communities; and creating “100K Strong States,” a subnational consortium of U.S. governors committed to expanding Mandarin language-learning in their states.  

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Follow our news, recent searches, chinese president xi visits vietnam to strengthen ties, boost influence in region amid geopolitical rivalry, advertisement.

Mr Xi’s visit will involve discussions on bringing relations to a “higher position”, according to Beijing. 

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Calvin Yang

HANOI: China will be looking to strengthen relations with Vietnam, when Chinese President Xi Jinping makes a two-day state visit to the Southeast Asian country on Tuesday (Dec 12). 

This comes as China and the United States compete for influence in the region .

Mr Xi will be holding talks with top leaders, including Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, on his first visit to Vietnam in six years.

Both countries are set to issue a joint statement before Mr Xi's departure on Wednesday.

MILESTONE IN BILATERAL TIES

Mr Xi, who will arrive in Hanoi on Tuesday afternoon, will be greeted with a 21-gun salute, an honour that was notably absent when US President Joe Biden was in town three months ago. 

During Mr Biden's visit, Vietnam and the US elevated relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership , the same tier as Hanoi's ties with Beijing, which is expected to bring various economic benefits to Vietnam, including technology transfer and trade expansion. 

ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute visiting fellow Nguyen Khac Giang said: “This visit has a very significant impact on geopolitical competition between the US and China, because most (countries) want Vietnam to be on their side in the great power competition.”

Vietnam has said that Mr Xi's visit will be a new historic milestone in bilateral ties between the two countries.

It will involve discussions on bringing the relationship to a “higher position”, according to Beijing, while remaining unclear as to what form this would take. 

Mr Xi is expected to push for the building of a China-Vietnam community with a shared future, which involves bringing Hanoi closer to Beijing's orbit.

“The last visit by Xi Jinping was (in) 2017, and he actually suggested that. But Vietnam disagreed,” said Emeritus Professor Carlyle Thayer of the University of New South Wales Canberra.

“But China is pushing for common destiny, common security, (and) common development. This is the platform and programme of China's new world order, in which the US would just be relegated to being one of the players.”

TRADE, INFRASTRUCTURE AND ECONOMIC TIES ON THE AGENDA

The talks in Hanoi will also touch on trade, infrastructure and economic ties.

Hanoi hopes to attract more Chinese investment and tourists, and increase its agricultural exports across the border.

While the territorial dispute in the South China Sea will also be high on the agenda, some observers do not expect much progress on this front.

China's Xi tells Vietnam not to forget roots of their friendship

Dr Nguyen Khac Giang said: “It's very hard to expect any breakthrough in terms of maritime dispute resolution within Vietnam and China, because both countries consider those areas as something very sacred, (and) as something of national pride.”

Anti-China sentiment runs deep in Vietnam due to a long and turbulent history of war and domination, but local residents still have high expectations for Mr Xi's state visit. 

Some residents said the visit is a sign that bilateral ties remain strong. 

Hanoi resident Nguyen Tien Dat said: “I think economic cooperation is the most important point in bilateral ties, because Vietnam is a developing economy and China has a strong economy.”

Another resident Nguyen Van Anh said: “I hope this visit will boost Vietnam-China political and economic ties, and that will support growth for Vietnam’s economy.”

China's investments to Vietnam boom as Xi visits Hanoi, US spending down

Vietnam asserting its new position in global supply chain: Expert

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China’s Xi Makes First Visit to Vietnam in Years to Counter U.S. Influence

W hen Chinese President Xi Jinping makes his first trip to Vietnam in six years, he’ll be seeking to ensure a strategically important Asian partner hasn’t drifted too close to the U.S.

The Chinese leader will arrive in Hanoi on Tuesday with a mission to  upgrade  ties with his Communist counterparts, the foreign ministry in Beijing  said  last week. He’s  expected  to lay down funding for railway lines crucial to exports from Vietnam, a boon for a manufacturer struggling to bolster post-pandemic growth.

The two-day trip—Xi’s sole visit to an Asian nation so far this year—comes just three months after U.S. President Joe Biden declared “enormous” opportunity with Vietnam on his first jaunt to the Asian nation. That trip yielded sweeping agreements with the U.S. on everything from semiconductors to security.

“China would want to pressure Vietnam not to go too far to these other countries,” said Lye Liang Fook, a senior fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute who has spent two decades researching Chinese foreign policy. “I think Vietnam is one country in Southeast Asia that knows how to balance this relationship.”

The Biden administration’s push to limit China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific, along with Beijing’s sweeping territorial claims in South China Sea, has forced nations such as Vietnam into a delicate balancing act between the world’s largest economies. 

Hanoi will be mindful of that balance as it seeks economic opportunities from its biggest trading partner this week. Vietnam has been wary China will use its economic and military might to assert more control in the South China Sea, where they have overlapping claims and the U.S. is providing growing security assistance.

Changed reality

The geopolitical and economic landscape is much changed since Xi’s last trip to Vietnam in 2017, which overlapped with then U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit around an economic summit where the superpowers jostled for influence.

Vietnam has since emerged as one of the biggest winners from U.S.-China trade tensions, as businesses redirect billions of dollars from China to the manufacturing powerhouse in a bid to secure supply chains.

The Southeast Asian nation has adopted a more inclusive approach to growth, evident from strengthening ties with the U.S. and its allies. During Biden’s September trip, the two nations formally upgraded ties, shifting the relationship to a “comprehensive strategic partnership,” the highest level and the one it uses for China and India.

“Vietnam’s maneuvered its diplomatic strategy to stay independent while upholding its stability and development,” said Le Dang Doanh, an economist and former government adviser to Hanoi.

Last month, Japan and Vietnam elevated ties while underscoring their adherence to international law and territorial integrity. Both nations are embroiled in territorial disputes with China. Tokyo also pledged to provide security assistance to Vietnam, after offering a coastal surveillance radar system to the Philippines, as Manila locks horns with Beijing in the South China Sea.

Such moves haven’t gone unnoticed by China. In October, Xi urged Vietnam to remember its “traditional friendship” with its neighbor during a meeting with President Vo Van Thuong in Beijing.

Xi’s trip will be a chance to nurture that relationship. The Chinese leader will be greeted at the Presidential Palace, followed by a 21-cannon salute on Tuesday before holding talks with top leaders, according to a schedule distributed by Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Those talks will include economic carrots from Xi. China is ready to provide funding to upgrade Vietnam’s railway from Guangxi province in southwestern China to Hanoi, and accelerate construction on other lines, Chinese ambassador to Vietnam Xiong Bo  told  state media at a briefing Sunday.

Vietnam’s Permanent Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Minh Vu also said the two sides are expected to establish a “ new level ” of bilateral relations, according to Vietnamese state media.

One way Xi may try to pull Hanoi onside is by pressuring it into supporting its loosely defined foreign policy vision known as a “global community of shared future.” said ISEAS’s Lye. That vision starts in Asia, Xi said in a  letter  published by Vietnam’s communist party newspaper ahead of his visit. 

“Asia is our common home,” he said. “Neighboring countries cannot be moved away. Helping one’s neighbor is helping oneself.”

South China Sea

Thorny topics are also on the agenda, with Xi set to discuss defense and maritime issues with senior leaders including Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, China’s Foreign Ministry said last week.

Vietnam and China have a tense military history: They fought a brief border war in 1979 and have clashed over control of island chains in the South China Sea, including in 1988 when a Chinese naval attack killed dozens of Vietnamese border guards on Johnson South Reef. 

China has since built the world’s largest naval fleet and last year its Coast Guard maintained near-daily patrols in oil-producing waters off Vietnam’s coast. Hanoi has accelerated reclamation activities in the disputed Spratly Islands and repeatedly urges China to respect its sovereignty.

While similar tensions with China have helped push the Philippines toward the U.S. , Vietnam has looked to prevent such issues derailing the overall relationship.

Over the summer, it pledged to maintain its so-called “four nos” defense policy that warns against military alliances, picking sides, hosting foreign military bases or using the threat of force in international relations.

Despite all that, Vietnam is likely to want some reassurances from Beijing over its military ambitions , as Hanoi presses its advantage after being recently courted by the U.S..

“They are after positive commitments on that,” said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia, referring to the South China Sea. “That’s the major irritant in bilateral relations and there’s nothing that’s been done to make it better.”

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Xi Meets Blinken With Tough Issues on the Agenda

The direct meeting with China’s leader is a sign of continued effort to ease tensions, but officials expect little progress on core issues like Taiwan, trade and Chinese support of Russia.

By Ana Swanson and Vivian Wang

Reporting from Beijing

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on Friday, as the two countries worked to hold together a fractious relationship despite disputes over the economy, national security and geopolitical frictions in East Asia, the Middle East and Ukraine.

Both China and the United States have said they were hoping for progress on a few smaller, pragmatic fronts, including improving communications between their militaries and easing travel between the countries. But they remain at a standstill on fundamental strategic issues, including trade policies and territorial conflicts in the South China Sea and over Taiwan.

And with other disputes looming, both sides acknowledged the danger of the relationship sliding into further conflict.

The Biden administration is deeply concerned that cheap Chinese exports are threatening U.S. jobs, and is worried about China’s support of Russia in the Ukrainian war. And China has accused the United States of working to encircle Chinese interests in the Pacific.

Still, in his opening remarks to Mr. Blinken, Mr. Xi struck a conciliatory note.

“China is happy to see a confident, open, prosperous and thriving United States. We hope the U.S. can also look at China’s development in a positive light,” Mr. Xi said, according to Chinese state media.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Blinken spent more than five hours with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, in meetings and at a working lunch at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.

Mr. Wang, too, adopted a somewhat less confrontational tone than in the past, telling Mr. Blinken that “the China-U.S. relationship is beginning to stabilize,” and that its future would rely on the decisions of both countries. During Mr. Blinken’s visit last year, Mr. Wang had laid blame for the deterioration of ties squarely with the United States, which he said needed to “reflect upon itself.”

But Mr. Wang also warned on Friday that the negative factors in the relationship were “increasing and building.”

“The United States has adopted an endless stream of measures to suppress China’s economy, trade, science and technology,” Mr. Wang said, according to a readout from the Chinese foreign ministry. “This is not fair competition, but containment, and is not removing risks, but creating risks.”

Mr. Blinken said that he hoped to move forward on agreements on topics including counternarcotics and safety issues regarding artificial intelligence.

“I hope that we can make some progress on the issues that our presidents agreed we should cooperate on, but also clarify our differences, our intent, and make very clear to each other where we stand,” Mr. Blinken said.

U.S. officials want China to make progress on stemming the flow to the United States of chemicals used to make fentanyl, and to strengthen communication between their militaries, among other goals. Chinese officials said they wanted to promote more cultural exchanges between the countries, and press the United States to end interrogations of Chinese students at the border.

Despite the effort being put in by both sides to improve relations, more factors appear to be driving the two countries apart than keeping them together. Geopolitical disputes over Ukraine and the Middle East have presented new challenges. And with an election approaching in the United States, the Biden administration is under pressure to offer more protections for American factories against Chinese imports.

In recent weeks, U.S. officials have begun more urgently raising concerns about China’s economic assistance to Russia, saying they view that support as a pivotal factor in the course of the war. They have held out the possibility of further sanctions, including on Chinese banks.

In a briefing with reporters in mid-April, a senior Biden administration official said that China had provided Russia with significant quantities of semiconductors, drones, machine tools and a combustible material called nitrocellulose. Those products are helping to fill critical gaps in Russian supply chains that might otherwise cripple their war effort, causing the Russian defense sector to expand more quickly than American officials had believed possible, the official said.

And in a government-sponsored export control conference held in Washington at the end of March, officials with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told executives of American tech companies that China had recently taken the lead in the countries’ long-running defense industry research collaborations, which in past decades had been led by Russia.

China has denied providing weapons for Russia’s war effort, which Washington has said would be a red line. Otherwise, Chinese officials have shown little inclination to scale back their ties with Russia. On Thursday, soon after Mr. Blinken arrived in Beijing from Shanghai, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia announced that he would visit China in May, in likely his first overseas trip since securing re-election last month.

Asked about Mr. Putin’s announcement at a routine news briefing on Friday, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry said he had no information to provide at the moment. But when Mr. Xi met with Russia’s foreign minister in Beijing earlier this month, Mr. Xi said that he and Mr. Putin had agreed to “maintain close contact to ensure the smooth and stable development of China-Russia relations.”

American officials have said they are coordinating with Europe to pressure China on Russia, but the Chinese government is taking its own steps to shore up its ties in Europe. Mr. Xi earlier this month hosted Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz , who highlighted Germany’s commitment to doing business with China.

Trade frictions are another issue between the United States and China, as American officials weigh adding new tariffs on Chinese imports and restricting more exports of U.S. technology to China out of national security concerns.

Economic ties between the countries have long provided a source of strength for the relationship, a point Mr. Blinken reiterated while meeting with business executives in Shanghai on Thursday.

But with an election looming in the United States, and the potential prospect of a return of Donald J. Trump to the presidency, economic issues could turn more explosive.

To try to jump-start the economy, Mr. Xi and other Chinese leaders are stoking factory production and exports. American leaders believe those exports could undercut U.S. manufacturing, particularly the new factories making semiconductors, solar panels and car batteries that the Biden administration is investing tens of billions of dollars in this year.

China knows that it likely has little room to sway the United States on trade, given the American domestic political situation, said Xie Tao, the dean of the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University. Instead, the Chinese government seems to be putting its focus on people-to-people exchanges, Professor Xie said. Chinese media has frequently raised Mr. Xi’s goal, announced after the summit near San Francisco last year, of inviting 50,000 young Americans to visit China.

“The Chinese government is really investing a lot of energy in shaping the future generation of Americans’ view of China,” he said.

Li You contributed research.

Ana Swanson covers trade and international economics for The Times and is based in Washington. She has been a journalist for more than a decade. More about Ana Swanson

Vivian Wang is a China correspondent based in Beijing, where she writes about how the country’s global rise and ambitions are shaping the daily lives of its people. More about Vivian Wang

China warns U.S. of ‘downward spiral’ as Blinken meets with Xi Jinping

HONG KONG — Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday as he wrapped up a three-day visit to China dominated by contentious issues and warnings from his hosts of another “downward spiral” in relations.

The two men met Friday afternoon local time at the Great Hall of the People, an ornate and cavernous building next to Tiananmen Square.

Blinken told Xi that President Joe Biden had sent him to China to “seek to deepen areas of cooperation as well as to manage responsibly the differences that we have.”

Xi noted that this year is the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and China, and said the two countries “should be partners rather than adversaries.”

“The world is big enough to accommodate the simultaneous development and prosperity of both China and the United States,” he said, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry readout, adding that U.S.-China relations will stabilize once the U.S. takes “a positive and constructive view of China’s development.”

The visit is Blinken’s second in less than a year as the two superpowers work to stabilize ties with renewed talks despite a growing list of geopolitical differences.

A primary goal of Blinken’s visit to China was to warn about its support for Russia’s war against Ukraine, which began weeks after Moscow and Beijing declared a “no limits” partnership in 2022. Though China does not appear to be supplying Russia with lethal assistance, Blinken said last week that it was providing machine tools, semiconductors and other dual-use items that make it the “primary contributor” to Russia’s defense industrial base.

Other issues on the agenda included Chinese economic and trade practices the U.S. views as unfair, Chinese aggression in the South China Sea , stability in the Taiwan Strait, North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs and the Israel-Hamas war.

Earlier Friday, Blinken met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, where foreign dignitaries are often received.

“There’s no substitute, in our judgment, for face-to-face diplomacy in order to try and move forward, but also to make sure that we’re as clear as possible about the areas where we have differences, at the very least, to avoid misunderstandings, to avoid miscalculations,” Blinken told Wang before the meeting. 

Speaking through an interpreter before the meeting, Wang said the U.S.-China relationship “has gone through ups and downs and twists and turns.” 

He said the relationship was beginning to stabilize but that “negative factors” were increasing.

“China’s legitimate development rights have been unreasonably suppressed and our core interests are facing challenges,” Wang said, in an apparent reference to U.S. export controls and other measures that Beijing says are intended to limit its economic growth.

“Should China and the United States keep to the right direction of moving forward with stability or return to a downward spiral?” he said. “This is a major question before our two countries.”

Blinken later described his meeting with Wang, which lasted more than three hours, as “extensive and constructive.” 

According to a State Department readout, the two men discussed next steps on a range of commitments that Biden and Xi made at their summit in California in November, including advancing cooperation on counternarcotics, military-to-military communication, talks on artificial intelligence risks and safety, and facilitating people-to-people exchanges.

That summit, the first encounter between the two leaders in a year, was intended to stabilize U.S.-China relations that had reached their lowest point in decades amid disputes over trade, technology, the status of Taiwan and the downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over U.S. territory.

Though ties have improved since then, they are being tested by the strengthening of U.S. security alliances in the Asia-Pacific, U.S. concerns about Chinese goods flooding global markets, U.S. inquiries into China’s electric vehicle , shipbuilding and other industries, the possibility of increased U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods , and the passage this week of legislation that could result in a U.S. ban on the Chinese app TikTok .

The legislation, which Biden signed into law on Wednesday as Blinken was arriving in China, also includes $8 billion for security in Taiwan, a self-ruling island democracy that Beijing claims as its territory, and the broader Indo-Pacific, where the U.S. and China are competing for influence.

Blinken last visited China in June, when he also met with Xi. This trip also included a stop in Shanghai, where Blinken met with U.S. business leaders and visited the Shanghai campus of New York University .

Jennifer Jett is the Asia Digital Editor for NBC News, based in Hong Kong.

Upcoming State Visit: Chinese Leader Xi Jinping to Meet Macron in France

I n a diplomatic initiative scheduled for May, Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit France for discussions with President Emmanuel Macron, as reported by Politico on March 18.

This important political engagement is set to coincide with the landmark 60th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties between France and China.

As per a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity to Politico, the event, despite its significance, will focus more on serious discussions relating to pressing economic and geopolitical challenges rather than celebratory events.

The Chinese administration’s recent moves have seen a strengthening of its relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is happening at a time when European leaders, including President Macron, continue to offer unwavering support to Ukraine. Xi has notably refrained from criticizing Russia’s military actions in Ukraine and has chosen to abstain during UN voting sessions addressing the conflict.

Earlier in the year, Reuters disseminated news that Russia has become China’s main oil supplier, further bolstering their ties. Additionally, combined naval exercises alongside Iran in the Gulf of Oman have also been initiated by the two countries.

While Ukraine maintains lines of communication with China open despite Beijing’s close association with Russia during the conflict, the effectiveness of these efforts remains in question.

Following President Zelensky’s proposal of a 10-point plan for peace in November 2022, there have been a series of four advisory meetings with national security advisers at the helm, wherein China was present at only one such gathering.

Just this week, the Chinese Ambassador to Switzerland signaled Beijing’s consideration of a potential role in the upcoming peace summit dedicated to the Ukraine war.

Switzerland has accepted to host the worldwide summit on the conflict in Ukraine starting January 2024. China, among over 160 other nations, will have the opportunity to discuss Kyiv’s peace plan and work towards a unified stance on how to reestablish sovereignty within Ukraine. The exact date for the summit, however, has not yet been confirmed.

China is reportedly exerting influence on European decision-makers to include Russia in future peace negotiations, including the Swiss summit. Beijing has even gone so far as to threaten to boycott any peace talks that exclude their Russian allies. Yet, Moscow has indicated that it would avoid the Swiss-hosted summit even if it received an invitation.

The previous encounter between Presidents Xi and Macron transpired in Beijing during April 2023. During their meeting, it’s reported that the French President endeavored to encourage Xi to leverage his influence on Moscow with the aim of bringing an end to the conflict.

FAQ Section

Why is xi jinping’s visit to france significant.

Xi Jinping’s visit is significant as it marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between France and China and provides an opportunity for high-level talks on geopolitical and economic issues.

What are China’s positions on Russia and Ukraine?

China has grown closer to Russia in recent years, abstaining from condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine at the UN and undertaking joint military exercises with Russia. Despite maintaining open diplomatic channels, China’s engagement in Ukraine’s peace process advisory meetings has been limited.

Has China agreed to participate in the upcoming peace summit on Ukraine?

China is considering participating in the global peace summit hosted by Switzerland, which aims to discuss Ukraine’s peace formula and restore the country’s sovereignty.

What is the stance of China and Russia regarding the peace summit in Switzerland?

China is advocating for Russia’s inclusion in future peace talks; however, Beijing has stated that it will boycott any summit that excludes Russia. Conversely, Russia has indicated it would not attend even if invited.

What was the result of Macron’s previous meeting with Xi Jinping?

In their previous meeting in Beijing in April 2023, Macron attempted to persuade Xi to use China’s influence to encourage Russia to end the war in Ukraine.

The forthcoming state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to France in May provides a critical platform for both China and France to navigate complex international relations, contributing to pivotal discussions on current economic and geopolitical issues, marking a synergistic moment on a historical milestone. With China’s intricate position in global diplomacy and its partnership with Russia amidst the ongoing Ukrainian conflict, the outcomes of these high-level meetings between Xi and Macron could potentially influence the broader geopolitical landscape.

Note: We, TheUBJ, do not produce the news content presented here. The information provided is a rewritten version sourced from various sources on the internet through AI news feed technology. We do not claim ownership or authorship of the news content. The original https://kyivindependent.com/politico-xi-jinping-to-visit-france-in-may/ link is provided for reference.

Xi tells Blinken to accept China’s rise if relations to improve

BEIJING — Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Chinese President Xi Jinping and other top Chinese officials on Friday, as both sides sought to stabilize a tense relationship that has been weighed down by geopolitical rivalry over Taiwan and Ukraine.

The day of meetings in the Chinese capital appeared to lead to no major breakthroughs, but leaders on both sides sought to project the very fact they were talking as a positive development after stretches last year in which ties were all but frozen.

Relations have improved significantly since Blinken last visited 10 months ago, after a Chinese spy balloon’s transit across the United States set off an unusually broad national blowback to China’s espionage activity. Since then, conversations have become far more routine, enabling the world’s two biggest economies and superpower rivals to return to managing their tense but interdependent relationship.

“We hope the U.S. can look at China’s development in a positive light,” Xi said as he met Blinken. “This is a fundamental issue that must be addressed, just like the first button of a shirt that must be put right, in order for the China-U.S. relationship to truly stabilize, improve and move forward.”

Blinken on Friday also held nearly six hours of meetings with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, giving the two sides ample time to air their differences about a host of issues that also include reviving military-to-military discussions and China’s frosty relationship with Taiwan. Beijing has also complained about U.S. efforts to cut off Chinese access to advanced semiconductors that would enable it to make progress on artificial intelligence that could have military applications.

The top U.S. diplomat’s conversation with Xi was much shorter, but it was a sign of the high degree of importance the two sides give their fraught dialogue. Xi and President Biden spoke earlier this month by phone and clashed on the subject of export controls, which the Biden administration says are necessary to keep U.S. technology from being used to undermine U.S. security and Beijing complains is simply an effort to restrict its economic rise.

“We are committed to maintaining and strengthening lines of communication,” Blinken told Xi as their meeting started. He said that the Biden administration sought to deal “responsibly with our differences so we avoid any miscommunications, any misperceptions, any miscalculations.”

Meeting Wang earlier, Blinken called U.S.-China ties “the most consequential relationship, I think for both of us, in the world.”

Welcoming Blinken to the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, Wang offered a cautious assessment of the discussions. “Overall the China-U.S. relationship is beginning to stabilize,” he told Blinken. “This is welcomed by our two people.”

But, Wang said, “the negative factors in the relationship are still increasing and building, and the relationship is facing all kinds of disruptions. China’s reasonable development rights have been unreasonably suppressed and our core interests are facing challenges.”

He warned against “engaging in rivalry and confrontation and even sliding toward conflict.”

The two sides have traded sharp exchanges over Beijing’s support for Russia’s war against Ukraine by selling raw materials and dual-use technology to Russia’s defense industry. The Biden administration has been trying to solidify a strategy alongside Europe to deliver a joint message to Chinese leaders to scale back support.

Just how successful that will be remains in question. With the United States threatening hikes in tariffs on steel and aluminum, Chinese leaders appear to have little appetite for making concessions elsewhere in the relationship.

For the relationship to move forward, the two sides “first need to answer a fundamental question of whether China and the United States are going to be partners or rivals,” Wang told Blinken, according to an official Chinese readout released after their meeting.

“If the U.S. always treats China as its main rival, China-U.S. relations will be continuously troublesome and plagued with problems,” Wang said, according to the readout.

Amid spiking tensions in the contested waters of the South China Sea, Wang warned about the Asia-Pacific becoming a “battleground for big powers” and accused the United States of “coercing countries in the region to choose sides.”

Beijing may also be waiting out the election to make significant shifts in its policies, analysts said, mindful that both Biden and former president Donald Trump have campaigned on tough-on-China slogans but have somewhat different demands.

“There’s a U.S. election backdrop” in which both Democrats and Republicans gain from tough rhetoric on China, said Wang Huiyao, the president of the Beijing-based Center for China and Globalization.

“They want China to confront Russia, yeah, China can,” he said. “But the U.S. still wants to put China as strategic rival number one. China is not really incentivized.”

Although Europe appears to have endorsed the broad strokes of Washington’s vision, some European nations, notably Germany, still have a more conciliatory approach. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was in Beijing last week to meet top Chinese leaders, part of an effort that included bolstering trade ties.

China is concerned that the United States will continuously “raise the bar” on what it considers support for Russia’s war effort beyond lethal aid to areas Beijing considers “normal” trade, said Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.

“If this time we bow to Blinken’s request to stop financial transactions, but the war continues and Ukraine keeps losing ground, then the U.S. will say ‘China, you should stop doing something else,’” Wu said. “It will be an endless process.”

The relationship with Russia was just one on a long list of issues the two sides sparred over.

The Biden administration, worried that fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45, has been pushing China to crack down on manufacturers of precursor chemicals. U.S. officials feel the issue is one where Beijing could offer some concessions at relatively little cost to itself, and might be a basis to build trust for greater cooperation in other areas of the relationship.

Blinken brought the State Department’s top official focused on narcotics, Todd Robinson, on the trip as a way to show how focused the administration is on the issue. But progress has been slow, officials say.

Conversations also ranged from the bill that just passed Congress that requires Chinese-controlled company ByteDance to sell TikTok to a U.S. push to get Beijing more involved in efforts to dial back the conflict in the Middle East. Biden administration officials have asked Beijing to use its influence with Iran to get that country to hold back from escalation in recent weeks.

Xi meets U.S. secretary of state

Source: Xinhua

Editor: huaxia

2024-04-26 16:03:15

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, April 26, 2024. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)

BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken here on Friday. ■

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In Beijing, Blinken and Xi stress need for continued U.S.-China dialogue to avoid "any miscommunications"

Updated on: April 26, 2024 / 6:21 AM EDT / AP

Beijing — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and senior Chinese officials, warning of the dangers of misunderstandings and miscalculations as the United States and China butted heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues. Blinken met with Xi in Beijing after holding talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong.

Talks between the two sides have increased in recent months, even as differences have grown.

"We are committed to maintaining and strengthening lines of communication between us," so that the two sides can prevent any "any miscommunications, any misperceptions and any miscalculations," Blinken said.

Earlier, Blinken and Wang also underscored the importance of keeping lines of communication open as they lamented persistent and deepening divisions that threaten global security. Those divisions were highlighted earlier this week when President Biden signed a massive foreign aid bill that contains several elements the Chinese see as problematic.

Their comments hinted at a long list of differences to be discussed, including Taiwan and the South China Sea , trade and human rights , China's support for Russia and the production and export of synthetic opioid precursors .

• Tiny piece of technology emerges as a source of U.S. tension with China, Russia

"Overall, the China-U.S. relationship is beginning to stabilize," Wang told Blinken at the start of about 5 1/2 hours of talks. "But at the same time, the negative factors in the relationship are still increasing and building and the relationship is facing all kinds of disruptions."

"Should China and the United States keep to the right direction of moving forward with stability or return to a downward spiral?" he asked. "This is a major question before our two countries and tests our sincerity and ability."

"China's legitimate development rights have been unreasonably suppressed and our core interests are facing challenges," he said. "China's concerns are consistent. We have always called for respect of each other's core interests and urge the United States not to interfere in China's internal affairs, not to hold China's development back, and not to step on China's red lines on China's sovereignty, security, and development interests."

Blinken responded by saying the Biden administration places a premium on U.S.-China dialogue, even on issues of dispute. He noted there had been some progress in the past year, but suggested talks would continue to be difficult.

"I look forward to these discussions being very clear, very direct about the areas where we have differences and where the United States stands, and I have no doubt you will do the same on behalf of China," Blinken told Wang.

"There is no substitute in our judgement for face-to-face diplomacy in order to try to move forward, but also to make sure we're as clear as possible about the areas where we have differences at the very least to avoid misunderstandings, to avoid miscalculations," he said.

The State Department said later that Blinken and Wang had "in-depth, substantive, and constructive discussions about areas of difference as well as areas of cooperation" and made clear that Blinken had stood his ground on U.S. concerns.

Blinken "emphasized that the U.S. will continue to stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners, including on human rights and economic issues," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

Blinken arrived in China on Wednesday, visiting Shanghai shortly before Mr. Biden signed the $95 billion foreign aid package that has several elements likely to anger Beijing, including $8 billion to counter China's growing aggressiveness toward Taiwan and in the South China Sea. It also seeks to force TikTok's China-based parent company to sell the social media platform.

China and the United States are the major players in the Indo-Pacific. Washington has become increasingly alarmed by Beijing's growing aggressiveness in recent years toward Taiwan and its smaller Southeast Asian neighbors with which it has significant territorial and maritime disputes in the South China Sea.

China has railed against U.S. assistance to Taiwan and immediately condemned the aid as a dangerous provocation. It also strongly opposes efforts to force TikTok's sale.

The bill also allots $61 billion for Ukraine to defend itself from Russia's invasion. The Biden administration has complained loudly that Chinese support for Russia's military-industrial sector has allowed Moscow to subvert western sanctions and ramp up attacks on Ukraine.

U.S. officials have said China's ties with Russia would be a primary topic of conversation during Blinken's visit, and just before Friday's meetings began, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he would visit China in May.

• Antony Blinken
• Human Rights
• South China Sea

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Xi Jinping is hyping China as Ukraine's peacemaker — while actually helping Russia's invasion

• China's Xi Jinping met Germany's Olaf Scholz Tuesday. 
• Xi said he wanted to try to bring peace to Ukraine. 
• But analysts say China is secretly intensifying support for Russia. 

China's leader, Xi Jinping, played the role of Ukraine's peacemaker during talks on Tuesday with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz .

At the meeting in Beijing, Xi presented his German counterpart with four principles for peace in Ukraine , according to Chinese state media.

Xi said nations must focus on "the upholding of peace and stability and refrain from seeking selfish gains," as well as "cool down the situation and not add fuel to the fire."

He added that they must establish conditions for restoring peace while reducing the war's impact on the world's economy.

The principles are vague and similar to a Ukraine peace plan proposed by China last year. At the time, the US said the plan worked mostly in Russia's favor .

But despite these public statements, analysts say that Xi's claims to be a peacemaker are a charade and that in reality, China is increasing support for Russia's military .

Last month, London's Royal United Services Institute warned that Russia was increasing its cooperation with China in 5G and satellite technology.

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And in recent weeks, US intelligence has said China is increasing its equipment sales to Russia , as well as providing important technologies such as microelectronics, optics, machine tools, and missile propellants.

This is in addition to the diplomatic and economic support China has already given the Kremlin.

The Institute for the Study of War , a US think tank, said on Tuesday that Xi was seeking to garner goodwill in Germany, a key trading partner for China but an ally of Ukraine.

"Xi's generally vague signaling to Scholz vis a vis Ukraine over the backdrop of reportedly intensifying Chinese support for Russia is therefore more likely an attempt to maintain China's access to European markets by garnering goodwill with Germany than to show actual interest in facilitating an end to Russia's invasion of Ukraine," its analysts said.

Scholz is the latest Western leader to try to persuade Xi to use his influence with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the Ukraine invasion.

But China showed no signs of changing its position, reiterating claims that the West was to blame for the war by arming Ukraine, the Associated Press reported.

China has been balancing conflicting priorities in Ukraine , as analysts previously told Business Insider. While Xi sees a Russian victory in the war as a way of damaging the global power of Ukraine's main backers, he's also keen to retain access to Western markets and US investment.

In recent years, the Chinese economy has experienced a serious downturn caused by a property-market bubble, and Xi has abruptly changed his tone with many Western leaders, offering a series of concessions to US President Joe Biden at a meeting last year in San Francisco.

So far, that shift in tone hasn't resulted in a substantive change in his position on Putin's war in Ukraine despite the best efforts of Western leaders to get him to intervene.

Watch: China's Xi Jinping praises Vladimir Putin during visit to Russia

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