China VP starts White House talks

Vice President Joe Biden meets with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012. AP PHOTO/CHARLES DHARAPAK

WASHINGTON—China’s likely next president Xi Jinping opened talks Tuesday at the White House, where President Barack Obama plans to press him on key concerns yet also work for better future relations.

Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received Xi at the White House’s Roosevelt Room at the start of a day of talks. Xi, who is China’s vice president, will later meet with Obama.

“This bilateral relationship is one of the most important in the world,” Biden said.

“We are not always going to see eye to eye” on every issue, Biden said. “But it is a sign of strength and maturity in our relationship that we can talk cordially about our differences.”

Xi, who will also visit Iowa and California, said he hoped to “engage with a broad cross-section of the American people.”

“I look forward to an in-depth and candid exchange of views and shared interests,” Xi said.

US officials have said they plan to raise a series of concerns with Xi including on the level of China’s currency, which US lawmakers say is undervalued, and on its human rights record which activists say is deteriorating.

But the White House has also invested time in building a rapport with Xi, who is expected to take over as China’s president next year and may lead the rising Asian power for the next decade.