Wu Bangguo, the head of China’s Congress, is enjoying a warm welcome in Washington. He met with President Obama, calling for closer economic ties, and attended a dinner on Thursday evening hosted in his honor. Secretary of State Clinton said, as she has done several times before, that “building a strong relationship with China is a central goal of the Obama administration.”
Putting aside differences (or at least not letting them overshadow the relationship) on human rights and trade, Clinton said, “We are entering a new era in China-US relations.” The United States needs China’s support and China needs America’s. The two powers should work together to curb dangerous actions by North Korea and Iran, and Clinton announced that the countries would be conducting joint talks on counterterrorism this autumn.
“We are two of the world’s three largest economies, two of the world’s largest populations, two of the world’s largest militaries, the world’s largest consumers of energy and producers of carbon emissions. For these reasons and so many more, our respective priorities and policies have a global impact, and therefore we have a responsibility to ourselves and others to work as effectively as we can to meet the threats and seize the opportunities of the 21st century.”
For his part, Mr. Wu emphasized economic, financial, trade and investment policies. He said that China would shift from an economy driven by exports to one more reliant on domestic consumption – rebalancing the economy.
Clip from US State Department.
