(VOVworld) Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping is on a five-day visit to the US to boost economic cooperation, improve trust and understanding, and ease pending disagreements between the two world powers.

US President Barack Obama hosts Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping

Vice President Xi Jinping’s visit has several purposes, and is not just a diplomatic gesture response to US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to China last year. This day 40 years ago, US President Richard Nixon visited China and issued the Shanghai statement, which officially opened a channel of communication and created a foundation for the US – China relationship. The presence in Washington of Vice President Xi, who may eventually become China’s highest leader, is expected to thaw relations, after recent disagreements over US initiatives relative to the Pacific, Syria, Iran, and North Korea, the growing trade imbalance between the US and China, and China’s currency exchange rate. 

Xi was welcomed by a 19-cannon salute, a rare honor for a Vice President visiting the US. President Obama has warned that China’s growing role in world affairs carries heavy international responsibilities. He said Beijing should maintain a trade balance, not only with the US, but with all nations. Vice President Joe Biden said the US – China cooperation only generates mutual benefits only if both sides compete fairly. Republican presidential candidates have frequently criticized Obama’s policy on China’s exchange rate. Washington has urged Beijing to take more effective steps to reduce the trade deficit between the two countries which has reached nearly 300 billion USD. The US says China has devalued the Yuan against the USD and adopted trade practices unfair to American businesses. The US also resents China's veto of a UN resolution on Syria and its rejection of Washington’s call for sanctions against Iran.

Vice President Xi expressed his concern over recent US foreign policy orientations, for example Obama’s announcement of a new military strategy focusing on increasing US presence in the Asia – Pacific. Beijing worries about the US’s refocused Asia policy and new US military expansion projects with Philippine and Australia.

The Chinese Global Times ran an editorial saying that Beijing should place its own interest above everything. The US and the EU are important partners, but there is no reason for China to sacrifice its own interests to satisfy the west.

Xi has repeated Beijing’s intention to build new cooperative ties with the US on the basis of mutual respect and benefit.

Analysts say the visit will provide no breakthroughs in resolving bilateral tensions, but will lay a stronger foundation for US-China cooperation in the future.

Anh Huyen