Five-day trip will introduce Americans to upcoming leader

NEW YORK - Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping, who arrived at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington on Monday afternoon, said the purpose of his visit is to advance the building of the China-US cooperative partnership, which is based on mutual respect and mutual benefit.

Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping is welcomed by US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns in Washington on Monday. His visit is expected to boost the relations between the two largest economies in the world. [Lan Hongguang/Xinhua]

In a statement released to the media upon his arrival, Xi said China and the US have more extensive common interests and shoulder more important common responsibilities as the international situation experiences complex and profound changes.

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"Whether we can seize opportunities, tackle challenges and build a cooperative partnership at the new historical starting point matters to the future of our two countries and the world as a whole," he said.

Xi, 58, said he is looking forward to exploring these issues with his American hosts as well as engaging in extensive dialogues and exchanges with Americans.

However, for Americans who are eager to get to know Xi, they already have a sense of him before he started his five-day trip.

In a written interview with The Washington Post, published online Sunday night, Xi discussed everything from China-US business ties, regional and global challenges to people-to-people exchange and his love of the NBA.

"There are no reasons for our two countries not to engage in friendly cooperation," Xi said.

Emphasizing the mutually beneficial and highly interdependent features of the bilateral business and economic ties, Xi said such economic relations would not enjoy sustained, rapid growth if they were not based on mutual benefit or if they failed to deliver great benefits to the US.

"The Americans who know the real picture of China-US economic relations, including those in the business community, will echo this point," he said.

Acknowledging that friction and differences are hardly avoidable in bilateral economic and trade interactions, Xi said the two countries must not allow disagreements to undermine the larger interests of business cooperation.

He pointed out that China has taken active steps to meet legitimate US concerns over intellectual property rights and trade, and will continue to do so.

"We will continue to press ahead with the reform of the exchange rate formation mechanism and offer foreign investors a fair, rule-based and transparent investment environment," he said.

But Xi hoped the US will take substantive steps, as soon as possible, to ease restrictions on high-tech exports to China and provide a level playing field for Chinese enterprises to invest in the US.

"What Xi listed are some long-term irritants in the Sino-US relationship. Although those problems cannot be solved overnight, Xi's comments will help ensure that problems, at least, don't hurt ties significantly," said Da Wei, an expert on US studies with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing.

On regional cooperation, Xi affirmed that China and the US have more converging interests in the Asia-Pacific region than anywhere else.

"At a time when people long for peace, stability and development, to deliberately give prominence to the military security agenda, scale up military deployment and strengthen military alliances is not really what most countries in the region hope to see," said Xi, clearly in response to recent US plans to expand its military presence in the Asia-Pacific.

On international economic and security cooperation, Xi said the two countries have conducted effective coordination and cooperation in addressing major international and regional issues and meeting global challenges in recent years.

"We are at a time when the negative impact of the international financial crisis and the European debt crisis continues to spread, regional hotspot issues crop up from time to time and traditional and nontraditional security threats are intertwined. Under such new circumstances, it is all the more important for China and the US to communicate, coordinate and cooperate more closely and work together to play a constructive and responsible role in upholding and advancing world peace, stability and development," he said.

Douglas Spelman, deputy director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said the visit is very important, although it is unlikely to resolve outstanding problems in the US-China relationship.

"It will build on the rich and predominantly positive experience of the complex relationship both sides have constructed over the last 30 years," said Spelman, describing the visit as a great opportunity for the leaders to become better acquainted and thus build the mutual trust essential to cooperatively manage US-China relations in the future.

"The visit, it is hoped, will see relations soar above the rhetoric that accompanies a US election year," said David Fouquet, a specialist on EU-Asia relationship with the European Institute for Asian Studies in Brussels.

While most Americans seem to be as interested in the world views of foreign leaders as in their personal character, Xi's interview with The Washington Post and his upcoming trip to Iowa and California shows his strong emphasis on people-to-people exchanges.

He recalled fondly his visit to Iowa in 1985.

"I saw corn farming and processing and stayed with a family for a couple of days. I was deeply impressed by America's advanced technology and the hospitable and industrious American people. That visit drove home to me the importance of closer exchanges between our peoples and gave me a better understanding of China-US relations," said Xi, who will pay a return visit to the Iowa town of Muscatine to meet his old friends.

"I think Americans are really eager to know who he is, to have a sense of him, what his views are on many questions," said Jerome Cohen, law professor at New York University and a leading Western scholar on China's legal system.

"We always like to have some feeling of the personality of great leaders, those of ours and those of other countries."

In the article in The Washington Post, Xi talked about how much he likes sports and that swimming is his favorite activity.

"Doing physical exercises keeps one fit and healthy and helps one work more efficiently. I think we all need to strike a balance between work and relaxation. This can keep us stay energetic and help us do our job better," Xi said.

Chen Jia in Washington, Zhao Shengnan in Beijing and Fu Jing in Brussels contributed to this story.