China's
Xi to make first state visit to U.S. as both flag
problems
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[February 11, 2015]
BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
Chinese President Xi Jinping will make his first state visit to the
United States in September, China said on Wednesday, after both
countries' leaders laid out possible areas of friction in a telephone
call.
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The world's two biggest economies have been trying to ease tension
over everything from trade and human rights to exchanges of
accusations of hacking and Internet theft.
U.S. President Barack Obama called for "swift work" by China to
narrow differences on cyber issues, the White House said, as the two
sides started planning for Xi's visit to Washington.
Last May, the United States charged five Chinese military officers
with hacking into U.S. companies to steal trade secrets. China
showed its anger over the allegations by shutting down a bilateral
working group on cyber security.
In a phone call with Xi, Obama said he looked forward to welcoming
him to Washington for the state visit, the White House said in a
statement late on Tuesday.
China's Foreign Ministry said Xi had accepted Obama's invitation and
would visit in September. Xi and Obama had an informal summit in
California in 2013, and Obama made a state visit to Beijing last
November.
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Xi flagged his areas of concern to Obama during the conversation,
saying he "hopes the U.S. side can pay attention to China's concerns
on the Taiwan and Tibet issues, and prevent China-U.S. relations
from suffering unnecessary interference".
China has been angered in the past by U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan,
which has been ruled separately since defeated Nationalist forces
fled to the island at the end of a civil war in 1949.
Beijing also regularly warns against foreign support of exiled
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, whom it sees as a "splittist"
seeking to establish an independent Tibet.
Obama and the Dalai Lama both attended a prayer meeting in
Washington last week, angering Beijing.
However, the two countries also work closely on many important
international issues, such as efforts to curb the nuclear programs
of Iran and North Korea.
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"The two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to coordinate closely
on security challenges, including by jointly encouraging Iran to
seize the historic opportunity presented by P5+1 negotiations," the
White House added.
The nuclear talks with the United States, Russia, China, Britain and
France aim at clinching an accord to ease Western concern that Iran
could pursue a convert nuclear weapons program, in return for
lifting sanctions that have ravaged its economy.
Negotiators have set a June 30 final deadline for an accord, and
Western officials aim to agree on the substance of that deal by
March.
China said Xi and Obama had also discussed North Korea and this
year's 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two.
(Reporting by Peter Cooney in Washington, and Ben Blanchard and
Michael Martina in BEIJING; Editing by Jeremy Laurence, Robert
Birsel)
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