Holding their first summit meeting at Rancho Mirage in Southern California, President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping vowed to work for “a new model of cooperation” even as their parleys were dominated by American concerns over cybersecurity, posed by China-based hackers.
Obama said the United States welcomes the “continuing peaceful rise of China as a world power”, commenting that “a peaceful and stable and prosperous China is not only good for Chinese but also good for the world and for the United States”.
But at the same time, Obama let it be known that Beijing should play by the same rules as other nations on free and fair trade, besides addressing issues such as cybersecurity and protection of intellectual property rights.
“As two of the largest economies in the world, we’re going to have a healthy economic competition, but we also have a whole range of challenges on which we have to cooperate, from a nuclear North Korea — or North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs — to proliferation, to issues like climate change,” he said.
Obama also made it clear that in his dealings with China, he would continue to emphasize the importance of human rights.
“President Xi has spoken of a nation and a people that are committed to continuous self-improvement and progress, and history shows that upholding universal rights are ultimately a key to success and prosperity and justice for all nations,” he said.
Xi noted that the summit talks were about charting the future of US-China relations. “The two sides must work together to build a new model of major country relationship based on mutual respect and win-win cooperation for the benefit of the Chinese and American peoples, and people elsewhere in the world,” he said.
As expected, Obama brought up the cybersecurity issue prominently, given the backdrop of recent incidents in which Chinese hackers
targeted US military secrets and businesses in a big way.
Xi, for his part, did not quite appreciate the American media accounts painting Beijing as the villain. During a joint media appearance after Friday evening’s talks, he took the stand that China had its own major concerns on this subject, but asserted it was firm about upholding cyberscecurity.
The Chinese leader went on to say that the application of new technology is “a double-edged sword”, commenting: “On the one hand, it will drive progress in ensuring better material and cultural life for the people. On the other hand, it might create some problems for regulators and it might infringe upon the rights of states, enterprises, societies and individuals.”
Xi said he and President Obama have “reached important consensus” after holding “an in-depth, sincere and
candid discussion on the domestic and foreign policies of China and the United States, on our joint work to build a new model of major country
relationship, and our international and regional issues of mutual interest”.