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US lawmakers seek deeper US-China ties on visit

US House Speaker Pelosi in China
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime critic of Beijing's rule over Tibet and its rights record, arrived in China on Sunday for a trip focused on energy and climate change. US embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson confirmed Pelosi had arrived in Shanghai but could not say who the top US official was going to meet in the country's financial hub. Pelosi is scheduled to attend a clean energy forum in Beijing on Tuesday along with Senator John Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Other details of her itinerary were not immediately known. Kerry on Sunday arrived in Xi'an, the capital of the northern province of Shaanxi, where he was holding official meetings and visiting the country's famed Terracotta Warriors, Stevenson said. He will travel to Tianjin, a large city near Beijing, on Monday to do some clean energy-related work before heading to China's capital for the forum with Pelosi, she added. Before her trip, Pelosi -- who is leading a delegation from a key energy and environment committee -- declined to say whether she would press Beijing on rights ahead of the 20th anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown. "The purpose of the trip is to follow up on meetings we've had here with the representatives of the Chinese government on the subject of climate change and energy and how that relates to our economy," the Democratic lawmaker said. Pelosi has been a vocal critic of China's rule of Tibet, drawing the wrath of Beijing, which resents foreign interference in its internal affairs, and led US congressional condemnation of the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. In March last year, when riots against Chinese rule erupted in the Tibetan capital Lhasa and then spread to nearby provinces, Pelosi urged "freedom-loving people" in the world to "speak out against China's oppression in Tibet". And in October, she commended the European Parliament for its "bold decision" to award the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia. But Jia Qingguo, a professor at the School of International Studies at Peking University, said Pelosi's visit highlighted an improvement in relations between China and the United States. "She has always been quite tough on Chinese policy, so her visit definitely shows that the two countries' relations are in a stable state," he said. Pelosi, who will be meeting with her counterpart Wu Bangguo during her visit, is due to stay in China until May 31. (AFP Report)
by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) May 22, 2009
China-bound US lawmakers said Friday that their visit aimed to deepen cooperation on pulling the world economy out of its slump and to ease any worries about investments in skyrocketing US debt.

Democratic Representative Rick Larsen and Republican Representative Mark Kirk, the co-chairs of the congressional US-China Working Group, arrive at their first stop, Hong Kong, on Monday.

In separate interviews with AFP, Larsen and Kirk said they would hold talks with officials and business leaders to seek ways to enhance Sino-US cooperation on reviving the global economy and to deepen diplomatic and business relations.

"The focus of the trip is principally on the economy, and how the United States and China, through joint action, can improve each other's prospects," said Kirk, whose home state is Illinois.

"I think if it's done well, with the US leading the developed world and China leading in the developing world, it can help bring others along," said Larsen, who hails from Washington state, a major entry point for Chinese goods.

The delegation will visit Hong Kong to assess on the global downturn's impact on the financial services sector; hard-hit Guangzhou province to see the response to rising unemployment; Shanghai to appraise the state of Chinese manufacturing; and Beijing for talks with government officials.

"We'll be looking at their stimulus measures versus ours, and how the Chinese government is responding, quite frankly, to unemployment in their country," said Kirk.

The lawmakers said they also expected to discuss irritants in the US-China relationship, such as the Chinese black-market for US goods like movies, as well as the human rights picture ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Larsen hoped the talks would offer insight on the shape of the "China 3.0" economy after the global slowdown -- such as whether Beijing will try to stimulate domestic demand and lower its reliance on exports.

"I think that in the long term, anything China does that creates consumer demand is good news for Chinese trading partners like the United States, providing us an opportunity to fill some of that demand," Larsen told AFP.

He said he expected that the Chinese side would air concerns about the US economy including the safety of Beijing's huge investment in US Treasury Bonds.

Larsen said he was ready to explain that President Barack Obama was working to turn around the economy and stressed: "We have never defaulted on anything and we're not going to default on anything now."

The delegation will also raise prospects for dramatically deepening the US diplomatic presence in China by opening 10 new "presence posts" to handle visa and other non-classified matters in major cities.

"The US-China relationship is the most diplomatic relationship of the 21st century. When looked at in that light, you see our diplomatic presence is very inadequate," said Kirk.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will also be in China for high-level talks on climate change, while US President Barack Obama is expected in China in the second half of 2009.

While Larsen expected the trip to focus on the economy, he was mindful that his visit comes ahead of the sensitive 20th anniversary of China's crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.

"I don't necessarily expect it to come up, but it's always in the back of my mind because we here in the US support democracy, support democratic movements and certainly want to see people treated fairly and with the dignity they deserve," he said.

Kirk said the lawmakers also hoped to sound out Beijing on North Korea and "what would Chinese policy be if there were a nuclear detonation" by the hermetic Stalinist country.

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