core sector communique

U.S. and China Address Strategic, Economic Interests in Beijing

By Phillip Kurata

Staff Writer

Washington - The United States and China have opened far-reaching talks in Beijing aimed at expanding and deepening cooperation on strategic and economic issues.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in her opening remarks at the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue that the two countries have become "thoroughly, inescapably interdependent" since the dialogue was initiated in 2009.

"A thriving China is good for America, and a thriving America is good for China," she said in Beijing May 3. She added that the two governments do not always agree, but without their cooperation, it is "doubtful" that any global problem can be solved.

The secretary said that in the strategic portion of the dialogue, the two countries are discussing how to promote greater military transparency to avoid misunderstandings, to build trust and maintain mutual stability, and how to tackle some of the world's most urgent crises from climate change to proliferation.

Clinton noted that the United States and China have expanded their EcoPartnerships, voluntary arrangements involving state, local and private sector groups to spur innovation, investment and engagement on clean energy and the environment. Clinton visited an exhibit of clean cookstoves manufactured and used in China and offered her congratulations to China for joining the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.

"This illustrates ... that the United States and China can and will work together in new ways and through many channels to address our common challenges on energy and the environment," she said.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said that when the United States and China convened the first strategic and economic dialogue in 2009, the global economy was facing its most serious threat in decades. "We worked together to put out the fires of the global financial crisis, and today the world is a better place," he said.

Geithner said the United States is working to put its economic house in order by repairing the damage from the financial crisis and implementing a comprehensive program of reforms to improve education, scientific research and education, and investment incentives.

He said that China is facing a "new reality": that it must rely more on domestic consumption than on exports to grow its economy. It will need to encourage innovation by private companies in an economy "more open to competition from foreign firms, and with a more modern financial system," he said.

The United States is committed to working closely with China "to build a stronger economic relationship and to build a stronger framework for cooperation on global economic issues," Geithner said.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.)