The United States and China have said they had moved forward on a treaty that would ramp up investment but the two countries clashed over hacking and the case of fugitive Edward Snowden.
Despite sometimes strained ties, US officials yesterday said China had agreed for the first time to put on the table all areas -- not just those it selects -- in negotiations on a treaty that governs investment rules.
US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said in a statement that such a treaty would "work to level the playing field for American workers and businesses by opening markets for fair competition."
"The commitment made today stands to be a significant breakthrough and marks the first time China has agreed to negotiate a bilateral investment treaty, to include all sectors and stages of investment, with another country," he said.
The United States and China first started talks on a treaty in 2008 and the two sides remained vague on the extent of progress, not giving any timeframe for the conclusion of negotiations.
And for the second day in a row, the United States raised charges that China has waged a vast hacking campaign to steal American trade and government secrets, costing the economy billions of dollars through counterfeit products.
Deputy Secretary of State William Burns also criticized China for not handing over Snowden, the 30-year-old American who fled to Hong Kong after revealing details of vast US surveillance over the Internet.
He said the decision to let Snowden head to Russia, where he remains in limbo, went against agreements between Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping to cooperate more closely when they met last month at the Sunnylands resort in California.
"That is why we were very disappointed with how the authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong handled the Snowden case, which undermined our effort to build the trust needed to manage difficult issues," Burns said.
"We have made clear that the handling of this case was not consistent with the spirit of Sunnylands," said Burns, who was filling in for Secretary of State John Kerry whose wife is ill.
However State Councilor Yang Jiechi, speaking next to Burns, said Hong Kong enjoyed autonomy and that the special administrative region's decisions were based on its laws and "beyond reproach."
The talks, however, have been dominated by economic issues, with the mooted investment treaty holding incentives for both countries.
