Biden calls for more trust between US and China

US Vice-President Joe Biden called on the US and China to build greater trust, but also urged Beijing to stop "outright theft" through hacking as he opened two days of annual talks between leaders of the world's two largest economies.

The annual strategic and economic dialogue is the first real chance for the new cast of diplomats and economic chiefs on both sides to discuss a wide range of issues, including trade frictions, as well as the building of a "new model" of relationships between major powers, as advocated by President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart, Barack Obama.

"Our relationship is and will continue to be a mix of competition and co-operation," Biden said in his opening remarks.

The start of the high-level dialogue followed two days of talks among officials on both sides about cybersecurity, which has been complicated by former National Security Agency contract worker Edward Snowden's revelations of electronic surveillance by the US, which also targeted Chinese networks.

There was no information from either side on whether Snowden's revelations were discussed, but Biden said Chinese theft of US intellectual property must stop.