Xi calls for mutual respect between China and US as he meets senior American official
Chinese President Xi Jinping told US National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Monday that both countries should effectively manage their differences and respect each other’s core interests.
Yet Xi’s top general also told Rice that failure to properly handle sensitive issues between the United States and China could “very likely disturb and undermine” their military-to-military relations.
Rice is the most senior US official to visit the capital since an international tribunal this month rejected China’s vast territorial claims in the South China Sea – infuriating Beijing and fuelling tensions with Washington.
Rice’s trip is intended to prepare for a visit by US President Barack Obama to a G20 summit in Hangzhou in September.
We are confronting our differences with candour and clarity
Meeting Xi, Rice said the US and China’s interdependence meant that China’s success was also in America’s interest. The two nations had demonstrated that they could work together on major global issues such as climate change, Rice said.
“At the same time, we are confronting our differences with candour and clarity and we believe that clarity produces predictability, and predictability produces stability,” Rice said.