Xi Jinping to make first state visit to US ‘later this year’, Chinese diplomat confirms
Invitations to Xi and Japan's Shinzo Abe a sign of Washington's policy switch to Asia-Pacific
A top Chinese diplomat says President Xi Jinping plans to make his first state visit to the United States later this year, Chinese state media reports today.
The official China Daily newspaper quoted Ciu Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the US, as saying that Chinese and US officials were discussing the visit.
Ciu told Chinese reporters yesterday that no date had been decided yet for Xi’s visit.
The US had invited both Xi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for state visits, Obama's national security adviser Susan Rice said on Friday.
The invitations are a further sign of President Barack Obama's increased focus on the Asia-Pacific region.
Xi last met Obama in November after an Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Beijing.
The two also met in Rancho Mirage, California, during a more informal visit to the US in June 2013.
The US and China have been working together on a range of high-profile issues, including pledging in November to cut back on their emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for climate change.
The world’s biggest economies have also clashed diplomatically on several fronts such as accusations over cyber-espionage and Chinese actions asserting its territorial claims in the East and South China seas.
Mainland analysts said China hoped to maintain a stable relationship with the US and China's neighbours, but the South China Sea would remain a flash point.
Rice said Washington had also asked South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Indonesian President Joko Widodo to visit this year as part of Washington's moves to increase economic, security and diplomatic engagement with the region.
Presenting Obama's updated national security strategy in a speech at the Brookings Institution think tank, Rice said it aimed to "enhance our focus on regions that will shape the century ahead, starting with the Asia-Pacific".
Washington's "pivot to Asia" is largely a response to China's rise and increased assertiveness in pursuit of territorial claims, but the strategy document said the US rejected "the inevitability of confrontation" with Beijing.
"At the same time, we will manage competition from a position of strength while insisting that China uphold international rules and norms on issues ranging from maritime security to trade and human rights," it said.
Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University, said: "The key is how China is going to respond … China would hope to forge better relations with Asean countries to ease the tension in the South China Sea. It would also hope to see the confrontations between China and Japan in the East China Sea cool down."
Jia Qingguo, dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University, said Xi was likely to talk to Obama about co-hosting commemoration events for the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war.
Shi said Obama wanted to develop further ties with Indonesia as Widodo was more pro-US than his predecessor.
Rice highlighted Obama's visit last month to India, a country seen as a counterbalance to China. She said the visit had "strengthened a critical relationship which will deliver economic and security benefits for both our nations and the broader region".
Additional reporting Associated Press
