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China ‘to press US’ on maritime issues
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Chinese navy vessels take part in a drill in the waters off Zhoushan in east China's Zhejiang province, Oct. 19, 2012. (AP/-)
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eijing will pressure Washington over maritime issues during the upcoming annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue, as the United States’ increasing military presence in the South China Sea is among China’s major concerns, officials told China Daily.
China will bring up topics related to its major concerns, including the Taiwan question, Tibet and maritime security, and it will respond to the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, which the US is expected to raise, two sources familiar with the matters said on condition of anonymity.
The two countries have differing pursuits on major issues at the strategic level. However, the two still have many common interests, they said.
Whether it is on the South China Sea issue or on the Korean Peninsula issue, the two countries have a shared security goal to maintain regional stability, they said.
Beijing announced on Monday that the annual dialogue will take place in Beijing on June 6 and 7.
“China hopes to properly tackle differences alongside the US,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said.
The dialogue, which started in 2009, has become the highest-level, regular bilateral communication channel for the world’s two largest economies to compare notes on key issues concerning diplomacy, security and economy.
Observers noted that the eighth dialogue will be the last to be co-chaired by President Barack Obama’s administration.
On the economic track, Na- than Sheets, US undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs, reaffirmed on May 24 the Obama administration’s commitment to reaching a bilateral investment treaty agreement before Obama’s presidency ends.
Sources also said that China will urge the US to ease restrictions on exports of technology to China.
China’s investment in the US in the first quarter of this year is expected to be more than double that of the first quarter of last year, according to the National Committee on United States-China Relations, based in New York.
Ruan Zongze, vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said the South China Sea issue will be brought to the table because it has affected the two-way ties, and the US has been “undermining regional stability” while “rebalancing to Asia” in the past two years.
Beijing and Washington have planned an “unusually rich calendar” next week for an annual, high-level people-to-people exchange, which is expected to result in a number of cooperation projects, a source close to the event said.
Beijing announced on Monday that Vice-Premier Liu Yandong will join US Secretary of State John Kerry for the seventh annual China-US High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange.
High-level officials from the countries’ education, culture, health, science and technology, women, sports and youth sectors will meet for one day of talks in early June before joining large-scale talks the next day, said the source, who declined to be identified.
“Cultural and personnel exchanges have intertwined and reinforced political mutual trust and business ties,” said Ruan Zongze, vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies.
Such exchanges “have produced stronger resilience for the ties ... and will make the overall ties more sustained”, Ruan added.
