Putting a bright face on the future of US ties to China, President Barack Obama announced today that the two countries would start granting visas to each other's citizens valid for up to 10 years.
Yet thorny issues like human rights and trade lurked just under the surface, reflecting the tough road ahead for the two economic powers as Obama began a weeklong trip to the region.
Obama, addressing Asian business leaders at a high-level summit, sought to dispel the notion that America's interest in Asia should be a cause of concern for China's leaders.
Beijing has viewed Obama's engagement here with trepidation out of concern the US wants to limit China's rise, but Obama insisted that "one country's prosperity doesn't have to come at the expense of the other."
"We want China to do well," Obama said. "We compete for business, but we also seek to cooperate on a broad range of challenges and shared opportunities."
Under the visa agreement, US and Chinese citizens will be able to obtain business and short-term tourist visas valid for 10 years, up from one year currently. Student and cultural exchange visas will be made valid for five years rather than just one year, Obama said.
Coming just hours after Obama's arrival in Beijing, the announcement offered the president an opportunity to portray and the US and China as working in good faith toward closer ties.
"America's a Pacific power, and we are leading to promote shared security and shared economic growth in this century just as we did in the last," Obama said at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing, the first stop on Obama's weeklong trip to China, Myanmar and Australia.
Yet the visa agreement may have only modest implications.
The visa arrangement doesn't increase how long an American can remain in China or vice-versa. Rather, it increases the length of time during which a visitor is permitted to enter the country.
So a Chinese citizen who visits the US every few years would be able to use the same visa for a decade, rather than having to reapply for a new visa every year.
At the same time, other signs pointed to a heightened sense of competition that have rankled relations between the world's two largest economies.
Only hours earlier, Obama was at the US Embassy hosting heads of state from the 11 other countries, excluding China, that are pursuing a long-delayed trade pact.
Finalising the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a cornerstone of Obama's much-touted effort to expand US influence and economic presence in Asia, but China has responded by pushing its own regional trade deal with many of the same nations.
The US plans to start issuing the new visas Wednesday. Officials said the agreement had been in the works for months ahead of Obama's visit.
