Chinese president meets U.S. Secretary of State

President Hu Jintao met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Great Hall of the People on Wednesday morning, stressing that China will strengthen dialogue and coordination with the U.S to ensure that the development of bilateral ties heads in the right direction.

Hu recalled Clinton's last seven visits to China as the U.S. Secretary of State, including four visits for the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) and another three for the High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchanges. He commended Clinton's efforts in promoting the construction of the U.S. Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo and the program for U.S. students to study in China. The president appreciated Clinton's efforts to push forward relations between the two countries. "The China-U.S. relations have great strategic significance and global influence, and this is worth cherishing and protecting," said Hu. He said China is willing to maintain and strengthen dialogue, communication and coordination with the U.S., and eliminate any disturbance in order to ensure that bilateral ties will forge ahead in the right direction. Clinton said that over the past three and a half years, there has been a great deal of cooperation and consultation between the two countries, including a meeting between President Hu Jintao and President Barack Obama at the G20 summit in Mexico. "We appreciate the in-depth involvement that the S&ED has achieved," she said. Both countries have been able to explore areas of agreement and disagreement in an open manner, which demonstrated the maturity of the relationship, she added. On China-U.S. economic and trade relations, Hu hoped the two countries would make full use of the complementary advantages, explore cooperation potential, push forward cooperation of trade and investment and continuously lift the quality and level of bilateral trade cooperation. He called on both sides to properly handle the frictions and divergences in bilateral economic ties, and avoid any politicization of economic and trade issues. The president hoped the U.S. would firmly resist trade protectionism, ease restrictions on high-tech exports to China and provide a fair environment of competition for Chinese enterprises that invest in the U.S. Clinton said the U.S. is committed to surpassing differences and enhancing cooperation with China, jointly facing global challenges to prove in an unprecedented way that an established power and a rising power can create a bright future for their own people and contribute to world peace and stability. She said the U.S. is ready to work with China on infrastructure construction, new energy, environment protection and to expand trade and investment. Clinton is currently on her second China trip of the year. She attended the fourth round of the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue as special representative of President Barack Obama in Beijing last May. The visit is also part of Clinton's ongoing six-nation tour starting Aug. 30, which also takes her to the Cook Islands, Indonesia, East Timor, Brunei and Russia.