China and the United States share a responsibility for boosting global market confidence, Chinese vice president Xi Jinping told his visiting US counterpart Joe Biden in talks today that focused on shoring up trust between the two big powers.
China's vice president expressed confidence in the fundamentals of the US after Mr Biden earlier told him that global economic health rests on the US and China finding common ground.
Mr Xi, expected to succeed Hu Jintao as president from early 2013, will inherit responsibility for his nation's relationship with the United States.
In remarks to Mr Biden as reported by the Chinese foreign ministry, Mr Xi made clear that economic concerns are for now dominating that relationship, while also warning about friction over Taiwan, the self-ruled island claimed by Beijing.
"Recently, turmoil in international financial markets has deepened and global economic growth faces severe challenges," Mr Xi told Mr Biden, according to the ministry website. "As the world's two biggest economies, China and the United States have a responsibility to strengthen macro-economic policy coordination and together boost market confidence."
Mr Biden's visit is about building trust, not striking deals, and he also focused on shoring up optimism about US power and prospects for Sino-American relations.
"I would suggest that there is no more important relationship that we need to establish on the part of the United States than a close relationship with China," Mr Biden told Mr Xi in the Great Hall of the People. "I am absolutely confident that the economic stability of the world rests in no small part on co-operation between the United States and China."
"I hope it doesn't sound chauvinistic to other countries, but our mutual success will benefit the whole world," Mr Biden later told Wu Bangguo, the chairman of China's legislature.
Mr Biden will also be looking for signs of how Mr Xi (58) intends to handle relations, which span currency and trade ties and tensions, US arms sales to Taiwan, diplomatic disputes from Sudan to North Korea, and contention over human rights.
"Foreign policy is more than just one visit, it's about establishing relationships and trust," Mr Biden told Mr Xi. "It is my fond hope that our personal relationship will continue to grow as well."
The US vice president's five-day visit allows China to test Washington's intentions on US debt and new arms sales to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing calls a breakaway province.
Mr Xi will burnish his profile through meetings with Mr Biden and a visit to the United States, possibly in early 2012. He will also have to show he can navigate minefields in relations.
Beijing wants Mr Biden to assure it that its vast holdings of dollar assets and US Treasury debt remain safe, despite Standard & Poor's downgrade this month of the sovereign credit rating of the United States, official media have indicated.
Mr Xi's published remarks made no mention of that issue.
Since the S&P downgrade, Chinese state media have accused Washington of reckless policies that have created uncertainty about Beijing's holdings of dollar assets. Analysts estimate Beijing has put two-thirds of its $3.2 trillion (€2.2 trillion) in foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest, in dollars and is the biggest foreign creditor to the United States.
Reuters
