US Treasury Secretary visits China
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E-mail CNTV, March 20, 2013
US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has begun a two-day visit to China. Acting as US President Barack Obama’s special envoy, Lew will meet the Chinese new leadership and senior officials in charge of finance. Treasury officials say Lew plans to push China to allow its currency to rise faster against the dollar. He also wants China to take steps to increase market access for US goods and to protect intellectual property rights better. Cyber hacking is also expected to be high on Lew’s agenda. This is Lew’s first major trip since his confirmation.
A symbolic but significant meeting, President Xi Jinping and US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew met on Tuesday in Beijing. The meeting comes as a number of issues have bubbled up in recent weeks that are further complicating the relationship between the US and China.
Xi Jinping, Chinese President, said, “In the China-US relationship, we have enormous shared interests, but of course, unavoidably, we have some differences. But as long as we both approach and handle this relationship from a strategic and long-term perspective, I believe we will be able to always keep to the set direction of this relationship.”
Lew says the US government looks forward to China’s growth as a market for foreign goods.
Jacob Lew, US Treasury Secretary, said, “As you know from your conversation last week, the president is firmly committed to building a relationship of growing strength where we cooperate on issues of economic and strategic importance, understanding that we will each have to meet our own responsibilities but we’ll also have to manage our differences.”
The 30-minute talks held at the Great Hall of the People, kicked off two days of meetings between Mr. Lew and Chinese officials.
Lew is scheduled to discuss the bilateral relationship, opportunities for cooperation and growth, and efforts to level the playing field and create new opportunities for US workers and businesses.
Zhao Mei, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said, “The US Treasury Secretary’s visit to China aims to let China know the economic difficulties the US is facing. At the same time, Lew wants to know about the economic difficulties China has, and how China is going to tackle those problems. The healthy economic growth of both countries has a great influence on the world economy.”
Analysts say that both Beijing and Washington are eager to find new ways to avoid confrontation as increasingly far-reaching Chinese interest that are overlapped with those of the US. Economic matters are high on the agenda for the world’s two largest economies.
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