Washington, January 15: US-China relations are at a critical juncture and a summit between their leaders next week must produce “real action, on real issues” such as trade, climate change and North Korean nuclear proliferation, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday.
“It is up to both nations to translate the high-level pledges of summits and state visits into action. Real action, on real issues,” she said in a major China policy address.
Hillary urged China to let its currency appreciate faster, end discrimination against foreign companies and further open its markets to US manufactured goods and farm products.
Some US analysts see Chinese President Hu Jintao’s trip as the most important state visit in 30 years. The leaders of the world’s two biggest economies are trying to put behind them a stormy 2010 and forge more stable ties for the coming years.
Washington and Beijing sparred last year over longstanding issues such as US arms sales to Taiwan, the status of Tibet’s Dalai Lama and human rights. They also quarrelled over newer problems including deadly North Korean attacks on South Korea, South China Sea navigation rights, and rare earth minerals.
Hillary’s remarks were part of a week of China policy speeches by US Cabinet officials — and a trip to Beijing by Defence Secretary Robert Gates — designed to set the tone for President Barack Obama’s January 19 Washington summit with Hu.
–Agencies