US President Barack Obama (left) and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping (right) with their delegates during a meeting at the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage, California yesterday.
RANCHO MIRAGE, Califfornia: US President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping launched a second day of discussions yesterday on issues from cyber hacking to North Korea at a get-to-know-you summit that may set the stage for US-Chinese ties for years.
The two-day meeting at a sunny retreat near Palm Springs, California, was meant to be an informal chance for Obama and Xi to inject warmth into often chilly relations and talk about their differences openly.
As their second day of meetings began, both leaders appeared outside in the morning heat at the Sunnylands retreat, a secluded 200-acre complex. They walked side by side, smiling and chatting in English. Trailed by translators and aides, both, dressed casually in shirtsleeves, walked across a small arched bridge.
“Terrific”, said Obama when asked by a reporter how meetings were going. Both leaders had plenty to discuss as they wrestled with how to handle China’s rise on the world stage, more than 40 years after President Richard Nixon’s visit to Communist China in 1972 ended decades of estrangement between both countries.
Ties have been buffeted in recent months by strains over trade disputes, bellicose behaviour by nuclear-armed North Korea, human rights issues and each country’s military intentions.
China experts say if Obama and Xi can develop personal rapport — something lacking between US presidents and Xi’s predecessor, Hu Jintao — and make some progress on substantive issues, the summit could gain historic significance.
While China worries that the US is trying to encircle it militarily with its strategic “pivot to Asia”, the cyber dispute is the most pressing issue for Obama.
The Washington Post reported recently that China had used cyber attacks to access data from nearly 40 Pentagon weapons programmes, including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. China dismissed the report, saying it needed no outside help for its military development.
After more than two hours of discussions on Friday night, Xi and Obama said they needed to work together to tackle cyber-security issues.
They also agreed on the importance of improved military-to-military ties hindered by mistrust and poor communication. The summit also included North Korea, world trade and China’s territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas. Reuters
