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US seeks to operationalise a new model of relations with China while forging deeper cooperation on issues where their interests converge, a top White House official has said.
"When it comes to China, we seek to operationalise a new model of major power relations. That means managing inevitable competition while forging deeper cooperation on issues where our interests converge, in Asia and beyond," the National Security Adviser Susan Rice, said in her major foreign policy speech on Asia at the prestigious Georgetown University yesterday.
Rice said both countries seek the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, a peaceful resolution to the Iranian nuclear crisis, a stable and secure Afghanistan and an end to conflict in the Sudans.
"There are opportunities for us to take concerted action to bolster peace and development in places like sub-Saharan Africa, where sustainable growth would deliver lasting benefit to the peoples of Africa, as well as to both our countries," she said.
"We're improving the quality of our military-to-military relationship with China as we enhance our strategic security dialogues and cooperate on issues like counter piracy and maritime security," she said.
"Greater military engagement and transparency can help us manage the realities of mistrust and competition," she said adding US will continue to champion respect for the rule of law, human rights, religious freedom and democratic principles.
Acknowledging that the fundamental differences between the US and China cannot be minimised, she said their interests on many of the major challenges of the present time can and should be more closely aligned.
United States she said also seeks to elevate its economic relationship with China in the years ahead.
Last week, China's leaders announced plans for sweeping reforms that, if realised, could go a long way towards levelling the playing field for private and foreign investor and moving China's economy towards market principles, she said.
"That is an opportunity we must seize," said the top US official.
"But even as we increase trade and pursue a bilateral investment treaty, we will continue insisting on tangible progress in areas that matter to US businesses and workers.
"These include China continuing to move towards a market-determined exchange rate, increasing US access to Chinese markets and bolstering protections for US company's intellectual property rights and trade secrets -- especially against state-sponsored cyber theft," Rice said.
"If meaningful action is not taken now, this behaviour will undermine the economic relationship that benefits both our nations," she said.
"As the world's two largest energy consumers, energy producers and greenhouse gas emitters, the United States and China also have a duty to lead together to tackle climate change and spur the global transition to a lower-carbon energy future," she added.
