China VP woos US business leaders

Thursday, February 16, 2012

WASHINGTON, USA (AFP) — Chinese heir apparent Xi Jinping heralded "a new historical starting point" for ties with the US yesterday, wooing US business leaders with a glimpse of a more cooperative future.

Speaking during a lavish ballroom luncheon with the upper crust of corporate America, Vice President Xi described deeper Sino-American ties as an "unstoppable river that keeps surging ahead".

Glossing over the tumultuous twists and turns in 30 years of Cold War-dominated relations, Xi said interests had become ever-more intertwined. "It is a course that cannot be stopped or reversed," he said.

Xi welcomed Washington's interest in the Asia Pacific region, and said cooperation was needed on a range of challenges from North Korea to Iran, so long as China's interests are also respected.

Xi is on his maiden visit to the US as a top official, a trip many hope will help close a chapter in relations characterised by mistrust and mudslinging, particularly in the commercial sphere.

As the tectonic plates of global trade in recent decades, China and the US — the world's two largest economies — have frequently collided, jutted and bumped against each other, sometimes to damaging effect for both.

With Xi widely tipped to lead China from 2013 and Obama in a November re-election battle, his visit is being seen as a dress rehearsal for the next generation of US-China relations.

During the trip, Xi has worked US constituencies key to the bilateral ties: official Washington, corporate leaders and, later, a return to small-town America which he visited more than two decades ago.

Throughout his trip Xi has received the trappings of a state visit — even if he is only head of state in waiting.

In a broad-ranging speech that was short on specifics yesterday, Xi told business leaders that increased understanding, mutual respect for core interests, trade and cooperation in international affairs should form the basis for relations.