|
|
U.S. President Barack Obama will visit China in the second half of the year, the White House said Wednesday, part of a larger drive to deepen relations with a country whose economy is tightly linked to the U.S.
Mr. Obama met Chinese President Hu Jintao on the eve of the Group of 20 summit. According to a White House statement, the leaders agreed to create a new 'U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue,' which will be led on the U.S. side by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. China will be represented by State Councilor Dai Bingguo and Vice Premier Wang Qishan.
The White House said Obama accepted 'with pleasure' an invitation by Mr. Hu to visit China. The new high-level dialogue will focus on economic, security and other issues, according to people familiar with the matter.
The initiative appears to be broader than its predecessor, a forum started by former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, which focused solely on economic issues. While Mr. Paulson included other cabinet secretaries in his high-level talks with the Chinese, he ran the effort out of Treasury. Mr. Obama is expected to split the duties between his Treasury secretary and his secretary of state, with both individuals concentrating on specific portfolios of issues. The move is a sign of Mrs. Clinton's clout within the administration.
Mr. Geithner and Mrs. Clinton said in a statement that they would meet once a year with Chinese counterparts in alternate capitals, starting in Washington this summer.
The White House described Wednesday's meeting as 'businesslike,' a chance to compare notes on a sweep of economic and security issues, and vow stronger cooperation.
But senior administration officials said Messrs. Obama and Hu didn't discuss one of the most nettlesome pieces of the deeply interwoven economic relationship between their countries -- China's recent unease with its vast holdings of U.S. dollar-based investments.
In recent weeks, Chinese officials have expressed concern over the safety of the country's portfolio of U.S. government securities and raised questions about the dollar's suitability as the global reserve currency.
Given the huge amount of debt the U.S. must take on to fund Mr. Obama's fiscal-stimulus package and cope with the recession, any pullback by the Chinese -- the U.S. government's biggest creditor -- would have dire implications. And a broader move away from the dollar as a reserve currency would devastate the greenback. The implied threat behind the Chinese comments unnerved financial markets.
Yet those issues didn't make it onto the laundry list of topics Messrs. Obama and Hu discussed during their one-hour session at the U.S. ambassador's house in London.
'It didn't come up,' said a senior U.S. administration official briefing reporters on the meeting.
The White House said that at the meeting, Mr. Obama underscored his commitment to halving the U.S. budget deficit once the economic recovery is established. Hu 'emphasized China's commitment to strengthen and improve macroeconomic control and expand domestic demand, particularly consumer demand, to ensure sustainable growth, and ensure steady and relatively fast economic development,' the White House said.
Messrs. Obama and Hu also agreed to boost the resources of international financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, to stem the spread of the economic crisis in the developing world. At the same time, the leaders called for 'sweeping changes' in the institutions' governance, a reference to China's plea for more voting rights at the IMF.
Businesses welcomed news of the continued U.S.-China forum. Engage China, a coalition of 11 financial-services trade associations, said the U.S.-China economic relationship 'is the most important bilateral trade relationship in the world today.'
Similarly, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the high-level talks should boost cooperation between the two nations on key issues, such as expanding trade and investment, combating protectionism, enhancing energy security, protecting the environment, protecting intellectual-property rights and addressing global imbalances.
Meanwhile, Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, , urged officials to get the economic dialogue 'up and running as soon as possible.
白宫周三宣布，美国总统奥巴马将于今年下半年访华，这是美国深化两国关系的一项举措，中美两国的经济目前已紧密联系在一起。
奥巴马与中国国家主席胡锦涛在20国集团峰会召开前夜举行了会晤。据白宫发表的声明说，两位领导人同意创设一项新的“美中战略与经济对话”机制，美方牵头负责这一对话的将是国务卿希拉里和财政部长盖特纳。中方牵头负责的官员是国务委员戴秉国和国务院副总理王岐山。
白宫说，奥巴马“愉快地”接受了胡锦涛的访华邀请。据知情人士说，美中这一新的高层对话将重点讨论经济、安全等问题。
奥巴马与胡锦涛4月1日在伦敦举行了会晤这一对话的涵盖范围似乎比其只重点讨论经济问题的前身要广，后者是由美国前财政部长鲍尔森发起的一个美中双边论坛。虽然鲍尔森会携其他一些内阁部长出席这一美中高层对话会议，他终究是以财政部长的身份牵头出席对话的。奥巴马预计会将牵头之责在财政部长和国务卿之间平分，两人分别关注一些特定问题。这显示了希拉里在奥巴马政府内的影响力。
盖特纳和希拉里在一份声明中说，这一新的美中战略和经济对话会议每年举行一次，轮流在华盛顿和北京进行，首次会议将于今年夏天在华盛顿召开。
白宫将奥巴马与胡锦涛周三的会晤描述为“事务性”会面，双方借此机会陈述了各自在一系列经济和安全问题上的观点，并承诺要加强合作。
但美国政府高级官员说，奥巴马和胡锦涛没有讨论中国最近对其庞大美元投资的安全性表示的不安，这一问题是美中两国盘根错节经济关系中最为棘手的一个方面。
中国官员最近几周一直表示，他们对中国所持美国政府债券的安全性感到担忧，他们还对美元充当全球储备货币的适宜性提出了质疑。
美国为应对经济衰退以及给奥巴马的财政刺激计划提供资金，必须大量举债。有鉴于此，作为美国政府最大债权人的中国只要对继续购买美国国债表现出任何犹豫，都将产生可怕的影响。而如果国际上出现放弃将美元作为外汇储备货币的较大势头，都将对美元产生灾难性影响。中国官员的相关评论所隐含的威胁已经使金融市场受到 。
但在奥巴马和胡锦涛在美国驻英大使官邸举行的一小时会晤中，这一问题并未列入讨论议程。
美国政府一位高级官员在向记者简要介绍此次会晤的情况时说，这个问题未被拿出来讨论。
白宫说，奥巴马在会晤中强调说，一旦美国经济复苏势头稳定下来，他会兑现承诺将美国的预算赤字削减一半；胡锦涛则强调，中国致力于加强和改善宏观调控、扩大国内需求，特别是消费需求，以确保经济的可持续增长，确保经济能稳定且相对快速地发展。
奥巴马和胡锦涛还同意，要增加国际货币基金组织等国际金融机构的财力，以遏制经济危机在发展中国家的蔓延。与此同时，两位领导人还呼吁大力改革这些国际金融机构的内部治理，而这涉及了中国要求增加其在IMF投票权的问题。
商界对美中将继续举行战略经济对话的消息表示欢迎。由11个金融服务同业公会组成的联合会“中国赢机”表示，美中经济关系是当今世界最重要的双边贸易关系。
美国中国商会也表示，高层对话将推动美中两国在一些重要问题上的合作，比如扩大贸易和投资，打击保护主义，提高能源安全，保护环境、保护知识产权以及解决全球失衡问题。
与此同时，美国参议院金融委员会主席鲍卡斯敦促政府官员们让这一美中经济对话尽快举行。
|
|
发表于 2016-8-12 16:30:23