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Obama wraps up China visit

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-18 21:18

BEIJING: US President Barack Obama ended his four-day state visit to China Wednesday afternoon with a tour to the Great Wall in northern suburb of Beijing.

The light-hearted visit to the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site came after his meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

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During the meeting, Obama told Wen that US-China cooperation is crucial to many major global issues, such as economic recovery, climate change and regional and global peace.

He hoped the two countries would abandon distrust and misunderstanding, strengthen exchange and cooperation, so as to push US-China relations forward.

Wen said the Sino-US cooperation can play a unique role in advancing the establishment of the new international political and economic order, as well as promoting world peace, stability and prosperity.

Wen also said he did not agree with the suggestion of a "Group of Two" (G2), saying that China is still a developing country with a huge population and has a long way to go before it becomes modernized.

On Tuesday, Obama held talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao. A China-US Joint Statement was issued following the summit. The two countries reiterated in the statement their commitment to building a "positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship in the 21st century" and promised to jointly cope with common challenges.

Obama also met with Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, on Tuesday.

Obama started his China visit Sunday night from Shanghai and arrived in Beijing Monday afternoon. He met with Shanghai municipal officials and had a town hall meeting with college students on Monday.

China was the third leg of Obama's Asian trip, which had taken him to Japan and Singapore, where he attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Zhou Wenzhong and U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman saw Obama off at the airport Wednesday afternoon.