05 January 2011
Geithner, Chinese envoy meet ahead of Hu visit
WASHINGTON: US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met with China's top diplomat Tuesday in Washington as part of preparations for the upcoming state visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao.
US President Barack Obama is to host Hu in the White House on January 19 as the two major powers address ties strained by trade and currency disputes as well as security and human rights issues.
Geithner and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi held closed-door discussions on Tuesday afternoon, a US Treasury Department spokesman told AFP. He declined to provide any details on the talks.
Yang is scheduled to meet with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday.
The White House has signaled it will keep up pressure on Beijing to allow its yuan currency to appreciate. Critics say China keeps the yuan undervalued to gain an unfair trade advantage that has cost thousands of US jobs.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Monday outlined the administration's priorities in a question-and-answer session on the online microblogging service Twitter.
"They must do something about their currency -- trade, N Korea and rights on agenda," Gibbs wrote in Twitter shorthand.
In November, Obama's national security adviser Tom Donilon told reporters in Japan that Hu's visit would be a good time to assess "the quantum of progress" on the currency issue.
And in recent weeks Chinese authorities appear to have allowed the yuan to gradually appreciate ahead of Hu's visit.
The People's Bank of China set the yuan central parity rate -- the middle of the currency's allowed trading band -- at 6.6227 to the dollar Friday, meaning it has appreciated about three per cent since June 19.
Obama and Hu last met in Seoul on the fringes of the Group of 20 summit in November and are due to hold talks at the White House and a state dinner during the Chinese president's visit.
But serious divisions between the two largest economies will simmer beneath the diplomatic pageantry, including Washington's desire for a bigger Chinese effort to influence North Korea.
Tensions soared on the divided peninsula in the wake of Pyongyang's deadly assault on a South Korean border island in November.
Hu's visit will be the culmination of a flurry of preparatory diplomacy by top officials from both sides.
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is due to visit China next week, a year after Beijing snapped off military relations with Washington in protest against a multibillion-dollar US arms package for Taiwan.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific_business/view/1102774/1/.html
Geithner, Chinese envoy meet ahead of Hu visit
WASHINGTON: US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met with China's top diplomat Tuesday in Washington as part of preparations for the upcoming state visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao.
US President Barack Obama is to host Hu in the White House on January 19 as the two major powers address ties strained by trade and currency disputes as well as security and human rights issues.
Geithner and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi held closed-door discussions on Tuesday afternoon, a US Treasury Department spokesman told AFP. He declined to provide any details on the talks.
Yang is scheduled to meet with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday.
The White House has signaled it will keep up pressure on Beijing to allow its yuan currency to appreciate. Critics say China keeps the yuan undervalued to gain an unfair trade advantage that has cost thousands of US jobs.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Monday outlined the administration's priorities in a question-and-answer session on the online microblogging service Twitter.
"They must do something about their currency -- trade, N Korea and rights on agenda," Gibbs wrote in Twitter shorthand.
In November, Obama's national security adviser Tom Donilon told reporters in Japan that Hu's visit would be a good time to assess "the quantum of progress" on the currency issue.
And in recent weeks Chinese authorities appear to have allowed the yuan to gradually appreciate ahead of Hu's visit.
The People's Bank of China set the yuan central parity rate -- the middle of the currency's allowed trading band -- at 6.6227 to the dollar Friday, meaning it has appreciated about three per cent since June 19.
Obama and Hu last met in Seoul on the fringes of the Group of 20 summit in November and are due to hold talks at the White House and a state dinner during the Chinese president's visit.
But serious divisions between the two largest economies will simmer beneath the diplomatic pageantry, including Washington's desire for a bigger Chinese effort to influence North Korea.
Tensions soared on the divided peninsula in the wake of Pyongyang's deadly assault on a South Korean border island in November.
Hu's visit will be the culmination of a flurry of preparatory diplomacy by top officials from both sides.
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is due to visit China next week, a year after Beijing snapped off military relations with Washington in protest against a multibillion-dollar US arms package for Taiwan.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific_business/view/1102774/1/.html
