The New York Times reports on meetings between Obama administration officials and their Chinese counterparts in Beijing:
Two White House officials — Lawrence H. Summers, the director of the National Economic Council, and Thomas E. Donilon, the deputy national security adviser — held meetings in Beijing on Monday and Tuesday that were aimed not at fashioning new pacts, but at maintaining a dialogue that had been strained at times in recent months.
“Strategic trust is the basis of China-U.S. cooperation,” said Dai Bingguo, a Chinese state councilor who met with them, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao told the two Americans that China and the United States should not view themselves as rivals, according to the Chinese state news media.
American and Chinese officials have been trying to lay the groundwork for a state visit to the United States this winter by President Hu Jintao, and for the resumption of contacts between the two countries’ militaries. China suspended military contacts last winter to protest a White House decision to proceed with arms sales to Taiwan. Beijing officials regard Taiwan as a renegade province.
But Chinese officials were quick to dash any hopes that a thaw in Chinese-American relations would lead to appreciation of China’s currency, the renminbi. After strengthening on Monday on the hope that the talks in Beijing might produce a breakthrough, the currency’s value retreated in offshore futures trading on Tuesday after Jiang Yu, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman in Beijing, said, “Our exchange rate reform can’t be pressed ahead under external pressure.”
