Chinese President Kicks Off Working Visit to US

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, October 23, 2002

Chinese President Kicks Off Working Visit to US

President Jiang Zemin arrived in Chicago, Illinois Tuesday morning local time on the start of a visit to the United States.The climax of his trip will be a meeting with George W. Bush at the US president's Texas ranch, the two leaders' third meeting in a year.

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Jiang Kicks Off Working Visit to US

Chinese President Jiang Zemin arrived in Chicago on Tuesday morning by special plane, kicking off his four-day working visit to the United States as guest of President George W. Bush.

It is Jiang's second visit to the US. He first visited the country in October 1997.

Among those greeting Jiang and his wife Wang Yeping at the airport were Mayor of Chicago Rechard Michael Daley and Deputy Governor of the State of Illinois Matthew Bettenhausen.

Jiang's entourage includes Vice-Premier Qian Qichen and his wife.

In a written statement upon his arrival, Jiang said, "During my visit to the US, I will meet President Bush and have an in-depth exchange of views with him on bilateral relations and other issues of common interest."

"I am convinced that with the joint efforts of both sides, this visit will deepen the mutual understanding and trust, expand the exchanges and cooperation between our two countries, and further enhance the development of the constructive and cooperative relations between China and the US."

He said he is "very pleased" to come to Chicago to start his US visit. On behalf of the government and people of China, he said he would like to extend to the people of Chicago his cordial greetings and best wishes.

Terming Chicago as an important financial, trade and industrial center of the US, he said the Chinese government always attaches importance to developing friendly relations and cooperation with Chicago and encourages all regions and departments of China to carry out exchanges and cooperation with the city in all fields.

Recent years have witnessed closer trade and economic exchanges between Chicago and China, which have played their own role in promoting Sino-US relations, Jiang said.

Following his US visit, Jiang will proceed to attend the 10th Informal Leaders' Meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Los Cabos, Mexico from October 26 to 27.

Jiang is the fourth foreign leader to have been invited to Bush's private ranch since Bush assumed the presidency. The other three were Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.

Such meetings have been widely believed to symbolize intimacy between Bush and his guests and closeness and importance of their bilateral ties.

In an interview with the Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV channel broadcast last Friday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Bush is pleased with the way that US-China relations have developed over the previous 21 months of his administration. He said Bush sees China as a friend and is looking forward to receiving the Chinese president at Crawford on Friday, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Jiang and Bush are expected to discuss the Taiwan question, the linchpin of bilateral ties. He will ask the Bush administration to stick to the one-China principle and honour the three Sino-US joint communiques - the cornerstone of bilateral relations - and to refrain from selling advanced weapons to Taiwan.

Other likely topics include counter-terrorism, the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, economic and trade exchanges, military ties and Iraq, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

Sino-US relations have developed steadily since the two leaders pledged to build constructive relations of co-operation during their meeting in Shanghai in October last year.

In August this year, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage announced during a visit to Beijing that the US Government had put the East Turkistan Islamic Movement on Washington's list of terrorist groups, a decision that Beijing welcomed. The group was behind a string of violent terrorist acts in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region and elsewhere.

In late August, the Chinese Government released a set of rules on the control of the export of missiles and missile-related items and technologies. Last week, it promulgated another regulation governing export controls on dual-use chemical agents and related equipment and technologies. Analysts said the two sets of rules highlighted China's commitment to the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Bilateral economic and trade relations have also progressed healthily. During the first eight months of this year, the trade volume between the two rose 14.6 per cent year-on-year to reach US$60.2 billion. China is the fourth largest trading partner of the United States, and the US is China's second largest.

At the end of August, there were 35,991 US-funded businesses on the Chinese mainland, representing contracted investment of US$75.3 billion. Meanwhile, there were 681 Chinese mainland-funded enterprises in the US at the end of June, with a pledged investment of more than US$1 billion.

Bilateral relations, however, have also been marred by some thorny issues, the most prominent of which is Taiwan. Beijing has repeatedly protested to Washington over US arms sales to the island and over senior Taiwan officials' being granted permission to visit the US. Beijing regards such actions as serious interference in China's internal affairs.

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