Obama friendly, firm in Xi meeting

WASHINGTON — U. S. President Barack Obama told Chinese leader- in- waiting Xi Jinping on Tuesday that Beijing must play fair in international trade and vowed to keep pressing China to clean up its human rights record.

In White House talks, Obama sought to reassure Xi that Washington welcomed China’s “peaceful rise” but also signalled that frictions will remain in a growing economic and military rivalry between the two countries, despite Beijing’s political transition.

Xi’s meeting with Obama was the centrepiece of a U. S. visit that could help the Chinese vicepresident boost his international standing and show he is capable of steering his country’s crucial relationship with Washington for the next decade.

Treading cautiously, Obama sought to make a smooth start with China’s heir apparent while at the same time looking firm with Beijing in a U. S. election year when voters’ anti- China sentiment is running high. Obama faces a tough re-election battle against Republicans who say he is soft on China.

“We have tried to empha- size that because of China’s ... extraordinary development over the last two decades, that with expanding power and prosperity also comes increased responsibilities,” Obama said as he sat side by side with Xi in the Oval Office.

Xi, 58, in line to assume the presidency in March 2013, said he looked forward to building a “co-operative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual interests” but did not address Obama’s veiled criticism of Beijing’s policies.