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October 20, 2014

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China, US pledge cooperation on important issues

China and the US have pledged to overcome mistrust, manage their differences and cooperate on key issues such as combatting terrorism and the spread of Ebola.

Meeting in Boston, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi said the relationship between the two countries is mature enough to discuss disagreements while building on areas of shared interest.

“There are many issues that China and the United States are cooperating on, even as we have some differences that we try to manage effectively,” Kerry told reporters on Saturday as he began a second day of talks with Yang.

Yang said the aim of his visit was to prepare the way for a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama in Beijing on November 12 after a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

“We believe that we should continue to work together to deepen our mutual trust and to put our efforts into major areas of cooperation, while on the basis of mutual respect we can properly handle any kind of difference between us,” Yang said.

Washington and Beijing have clashed recently over matters including territorial disputes between China and its neighbors in the South China Sea, Occupy Central protests in Hong Kong, cyber spying and human rights.

A US official said these issues were discussed in a non-combative but direct and candid way.

Yang told Kerry that resuming cyber security cooperation between China and the US would be difficult because of “mistaken US practices.”

Yang said the US “should take positive action to create necessary conditions for bilateral cyber security dialogue and cooperation to resume,” according to a statement on the Chinese foreign ministry’s website yesterday.

“Due to mistaken US practices, it is difficult at this juncture to resume Sino-US cyber security dialogue and cooperation,” Yang said.

Kerry noted that the two countries are working together on efforts to rein in nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea and have a common goal in curbing Islamist extremism, climate change and the deadly Ebola virus.

China is among several countries the Obama administration has urged to step up efforts to fight Ebola by contributing more to the international campaign to stop its spread from the source in West Africa.

On the Islamic State issue, the US official said China had made clear it did “not join coalitions” but shared the same perception of the threat posed by the group, and the two sides discussed how they could better coordinate efforts.

On Friday, Kerry invited Yang to dinner at his Boston home and the pair finished their talks with a tour of the Adams’ home in nearby Quincy, where the second and sixth presidents of the US, John and John Quincy Adams, lived.




 

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