China and US vow to build a new model for ties at summit in California
At US summit, Chinese president says both sides need a new path that is different from the confrontation and conflict of the past
President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart, Barack Obama, vowed to build a "new model of major country relationships" as they opened two days of talks on a range of issues.
Hosting Xi at the Sunnylands Estate in southern California, Obama said the US welcomed the "peaceful rise of China as a world power". But he pressed Beijing on its human rights and cybersecurity, and urged it to play by common economic rules.
Xi invited his host to visit China.
The two had not been scheduled to meet until the Group of 20 summit in September, but both nations sought an earlier meeting amid rising friction between them over issues including China's alleged hacking of US computer networks and America's military pivot to the Asia-Pacific.
In remarks delivered in their first round of talks and at a news conference afterwards, Xi said the Sino-US relationship had reached a "new historical starting point" that required both sides to draw a new path that was "different from the inevitable confrontation and conflict between major powers in the past".
He said both nations needed to "think creatively and act energetically" to examine three major aspects of bilateral ties - the nature of the Sino-US relationship both nations want, how the two can co-operate for mutual benefit, and how they can join together to promote world peace and development.