BEIJING (AP) \u2014 China\u2019s nationalist leader Xi Jinping has called for closer trade ties with the U.S. during a meeting with top American business leaders in Beijing that comes amid a steady improvement in relations that had sunk to the lowest level in years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Xi emphasized Wednesday the mutually beneficial economic ties between the world\u2019s two largest economies, despite heavy U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports and Washington\u2019s accusations of undue Communist Party influence, unfair trade barriers and theft of intellectual property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China\u2019s economy has struggled\u00a0to recover from severe self-imposed restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic that it lifted only\u00a0at the end of 2022, but Xi said China was again contributing to world economic growth in the double digits percentage-wise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSino-U.S. relations are one of the most important bilateral relations in the world. Whether China and the United States cooperate or confront each other has a bearing on the well-being of the two peoples and the future and destiny of mankind,\u201d Xi was cited as saying by China\u2019s official Xinhua News Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Participants at the meeting included Stephen A. Schwarzman, the billionaire head of investment firm Blackstone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trade and tariffs have increasingly drawn attention in the\u00a0runup to the U.S. presidential election, and the Biden administration has shown little sign of moderating punitive measures against Chinese imports imposed by his predecessor and assumed rival in the November polls, Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. officials have renewed concerns over Chinese industrial policy practices and overcapacity, and the resulting impact on U.S. workers and companies, that they blame in part on China\u2019s massive trade surplus that amounted to more than $279 billion last year, its lowest level in about a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China\u2019s economy has been bogged down by a crisis in its property market in which builders are struggling under mountains of debt and buyers are paying off loans on apartments that may never be completed. Other issues, such as an aging population and high youth unemployment, are prompting China\u2019s leaders to lean more heavily on boosting export manufacturing to make up for weak demand at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, scores of foreign firms including Apple rely on China-based manufacturers as key links in their supply chains, along with the country\u2019s 1.3 billion consumers for a high percentage of their global sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China\u2019s formerly highly abrasive tone toward the U.S. has softened in recent months, particularly since\u00a0Xi and Biden met\u00a0in San Francisco in November. Officials such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken have visited, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is reportedly due to to travel to China again to meet top leaders next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Xi\u2019s administration has maintained a hard line on issues it considers its \u201ccore interests.\u201d Those include its claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, the self-governing island democracy of Taiwan \u2014 a close American ally \u2014 and its heavy-handed rule of outlying regions such as Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An ardent nationalist and son of one of the founders of the People\u2019s Republic, Xi appears determined to maintain strict party control while drawing in foreign investment to shore up the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe respective successes of China and the United States create opportunities for each other,\u201d Xi was cited as saying by Xinhua. \u201cAs long as both sides regard the other as partners, respect each other, peacefully coexist and join together for win-win results, China-U.S. relations will improve.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING (AP) \u2014 China\u2019s nationalist leader Xi Jinping ha […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3233,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3231\/revisions\/3233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}