Xi hopes for healthy relations with US
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping has expressed hopes that China and the US can maintain a “healthy, stable and growing” relationship, pledging to expand talks between the countries’ militaries and cooperation in law enforcement and cybersecurity.
Xi was delivering prepared remarks to reporters alongside US President Donald Trump at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Xi said yesterday stable relations between the two countries are in the “fundamental interests” of the Chinese and American people and are what the international community has come to expect.
Xi said the two sides “agreed to expand exchange and dialogue between our two militaries at various levels” and to a visit soon by the US defense secretary.
He added that the two countries would strengthen cooperation in law enforcement, cybersecurity, counter-narcotics and other areas.
Meanwhile, China’s internet censors are trying to ensure that the warm welcome afforded to Trump extends to the country’s lively online social networks, where negative comments about the visit are being assiduously scrubbed from view.
Reports by state propaganda outlets and the ruling Communist Party’s official mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, about the highly anticipated visit dominated posts on the country’s most popular Twitter-like microblog, Weibo, yesterday.
In most cases, the comments function on such news posts appeared to have been disabled or limited, with only a few dozen “carefully chosen” comments with positive messages allowed.
According to Free Weibo, a censorship tracking site, posts that have been deleted include humorous comments about the remarkable lack of traffic congestion in Beijing as Trump’s motorcade passed Tiananmen Square.
There have also been questions about whether Trump can access Twitter, which is blocked in China. The answer: Yes, he can. Trade and the North Korea nuclear threat weren’t the only issues on the agenda for talks between Trump and Xi.
Trump says they discussed Afghanistan and both leaders are committed to working toward a peaceful future for the militant haven.
Trump says after his talks with Xi that terrorists are a threat to humanity and that he and Xi will “stop radical Islamic terrorism.”
Trump also said the leaders will focus strongly on drug trafficking.
Chinese officials have disputed Trump’s claim that the opioid fentanyl, which is flooding the US, is produced mostly in China. China doesn’t deny that some fentanyl produced illicitly inside the country ends up in the United States.
Trump said fentanyl is “destroying lives by the millions.”
Xi said China is willing to expand imports of liquefied natural gas, crude oil and other energy products from the US.
His remarks are aimed at addressing criticism from the US about unbalanced trade between the two countries.