Biden tells China cooperation key for global economy

China and the United States share a responsibility for boosting global market confidence, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping told visiting US Vice President Joe Biden in talks on Thursday that focused on shoring up trust between the two big powers. Vice President Xi (pronounced "Shee"), expected to succeed Hu Jintao as president from early 2013, will inherit responsibility for his nation's vast, sometimes troublesome relationship with the United States.
In remarks to Biden as reported by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Xi made clear that economic concerns are for now dominating that relationship, while also warning about friction over Taiwan, the self-ruled island claimed by Beijing. "Recently, turmoil in international financial markets has deepened and global economic growth faces severe challenges," Xi told Biden, according to the ministry website (http://www.mfa.gov.cn).
"As the world's two biggest economies, China and the United States have a responsibility to strengthen macro-economic policy co-ordination and together boost market confidence." Biden's visit is about building trust, not striking deals, and he also focused on shoring up optimism about US power and prospects for Sino-American relations.
"I would suggest that there is no more important relationship that we need to establish on the part of the United States than a close relationship with China," Biden told Xi in the Great Hall of the People, a cavernous ceremonial chamber. "I am absolutely confident that the economic stability of the world rests in no small part on cooperation between the United States and China." Biden will also be looking for signs of how Xi, 58, intends to handle relations, which span currency and trade ties and tensions, US arms sales to Taiwan, diplomatic disputes from Sudan to North Korea, and contention over human rights.
Biden's five-day visit allows China to test Washington's intentions on US debt and new arms sales to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing calls a breakaway province. Xi will burnish his profile through meetings with Biden and a visit to the United States, possibly in early 2012. He will also have to show he can navigate minefields in relations. Beijing wants Biden to assure it that its vast holdings of dollar assets and US Treasury debt remain safe, despite Standard & Poor's downgrade this month of the sovereign credit rating of the United States, official media have indicated.