Obama, China’s Xi to huddle, air their concerns

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — Prickly subjects including Chinese cyberespionage, North Korea’s nuclear program and bitter disputes over Asian islands will present challenges to President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping when they meet in this city outside Palm Springs on Friday, seeking to build on a relationship that is complex and crucial for both nations.

The meeting, Obama’s first with Xi since the Chinese president took office in March, will give the presidents a rare opportunity to share views in an informal setting among the desert gardens of Sunnylands, the Annenberg estate that has hosted seven other American leaders from Dwight D. Eisenhower to George W. Bush.

The two-day talks will allow Obama and Xi to get to know each other better, air their lists of concerns and look for more avenues of cooperation in trade, investment and diplomacy.

Much is riding on the interconnectedness of the world’s two biggest economies, and Obama will likely try to strike a balance between standing up for U.S. interests and cultivating ties to China as its global influence grows.

China’s burgeoning middle class is now estimated at more than 300 million people, about the same size as the total U.S. population. China’s foreign investments are rapidly increasing and projected to skyrocket in the coming decade.

Xi has begun touting a new slogan for the country’s collective aspirations: the “Chinese Dream.” He has also called for a new sort of “great power relationship” with the U.S.

For both leaders, being able to work together is vital. Both want to establish a fluid working relationship to try to lessen tensions when they flare.

“It’s a meeting that offers a possibility of taking the relationship to a new level,” said Thomas Fingar, a China scholar and a fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

“There’s no significant international issue that can be ‘solved,’ in quotation marks, without U.S.China cooperation,” said Fingar, who previously worked for the U.S. State Department. “Without the U.S. and China being in basic agreement — whether it’s energy security or rebuilding old institutions, financial institutions, climate change — there’s none that can be done if we’re not working in parallel on it, and therefore the relationship is important to everybody.”

American and Chinese leaders have been seeking common ground for decades. In his historic visit to Beijing in 1972, President Richard Nixon helped normalize relations when he shook hands with communist revolutionary leader Mao Zedong. In 2002, President George W. Bush hosted Chinese President Jiang Zemin at his ranch in Texas.

Some who closely follow U.S.-Chinese relations are calling the upcoming meeting the first of its kind — a casual retreat where discussions may be deeper and less scripted, and where Obama and Xi may be able to click in ways that allow them to make breakthroughs.

When the 59-year-old Xi took office in March, he brought an abrupt shift in style from that of outgoing leader Hu Jintao, who had been described by some as wooden and hard to read.

Xi, in contrast, seems to be more open, more confident and more in control at home, said Bonnie Glaser, a China specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Showing that confidence, Xi recently kicked around a soccer ball during a visit to Ireland. His strong public persona is complemented by his celebrity wife, singer Peng Liyuan, who will accompany him in California after visits to Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica and Mexico.

At home, Xi is pursuing plans for economic reforms to revitalize the economy, which has slipped to its weakest growth in more than a decade.

“He seems more willing to talk about the problems that China faces in a candid way, have a direct conversation,” said Glaser, formerly a consultant to U.S. agencies, including the Departments of Defense and State.

Having more direct conversations could help Xi and Obama lay ground rules for addressing contentious subjects such as U.S. accusations of Chinese cyberattacks and theft of intellectual property, and China’s disputes with Japan and the Philippines over claims to islands.

Initially, U.S. officials hadn’t planned for Obama to meet Xi until the next G-20 summit in September. But the date was pushed ahead in a decision widely interpreted as an attempt to keep the relationship from veering off course.

There are risks of rising military and economic tensions, and both sides want to establish a framework for ties that emphasizes cooperation over competition.

“First and foremost, the Chinese want a consensus with the United States that this relationship is going to be sound and stable,” Glaser said. “The Chinese do not want a tense relationship with the U.S. They don’t want greater U.S.-Chinese competition, particularly in their backyard with their neighbors, and they don’t want the United States president criticiz- ing them publicly, which has happened before. They want Obama to get up and say, ‘This is the most important relationship in the world,’ or something close to it.”

Among the issues topping Obama’s agenda, the White House says he will raise cybersecurity. U.S. officials have expressed alarm about reports that China has been stealing American military and high-tech secrets.

The U.S. Department of Defense said in a recent report to Congress that some cyberattacks “appear to be attributable directly to the Chinese government and military.”

A separate report prepared for the Pentagon by the Defense Science Board revealed that Chinese hackers had ac- cessed the designs of a list of advanced U.S. weapons systems. The report, released earlier this year, said the designs compromised included those of U.S. missile defense systems and aircraft such as the V-22 Osprey and the F-35 joint strike fighter.

North Korea’s refusal to abandon its nuclear and missile programs will also be high on the agenda.