美
国副总统拜登(Joe Biden)开始访问中国时，两国领导人强调在全球前景不明之际开展合作的重要性。美方官员说，他们获得了有望不久后成为中国最高领导人的习近平为美国经济投下的信任票。拜登周四同包括中国国家副主席习近平在内的中国官员举行了第一天的会谈。这是欧美主权债务问题和其他危机引发的担忧越来越强烈、于上月底开始搅扰全球市场以来，世界最大的两个经济体之间举行的第一轮高层对话。预计习近平明年将接替胡锦涛担任中共中央总书记，2013年接任国家主席。
拜登访问之前，中国官方媒体和评论员曾经严厉批评华盛顿的财政政策，表示担心美国的挥霍浪费与政治乱局有可能损害中国的经济和它手中超过1万亿美元的美国国债。
但美国官员说，周四习近平很少表示不满，而是对美国经济 "适应和反弹"的能力表达了信心。
周四参加会晤后向媒体介绍情况的一名美国政府高级官员说，和中国公众的某些评论恰恰相反，今天和我们会谈的领导人当中，无论是公开场合还是私下场合，每个人都对美国有着相当的信心。
Peter Parks/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
奏完两国国歌后，中国国家副主席习近平向美国副总统拜登(Joe Biden)示意。
相反，中国领导人和拜登都只平淡地呼吁加强两国关系。与习近平会晤之初，拜登说，世界经济的稳定在很大程度上有赖于美中两国的合作；它影响每一个国家。
习近平在开场白中说，在新形势下，中美有着更广泛的共同利益，我们也要承担更加重要的共同责任。
然而，中方人员要求外国记者及拜登的新闻工作人员离开会议室的做法令双方都试图烘托的积极气氛略微受到损害。记者们原本想可以听完拜登在习近平讲话之后的致辞，但在拜登讲话进行到一半时，中方工作人员开始让这十几个人离开会议室。
接着几名记者与安保人员发生了推搡，此时中国几名外交部官员呼吁大家保持冷静。美国官员显然对此感到不快，这种冲撞在如此高级别的访问中是很少见的，但他们拒绝置评。中国政府并未就此事发表正式声明，但官员说他们只是按标准程序在会议开始几分钟后要求记者离开。
当天晚些时候，在拜登与中国全国人大常委会委员长吴邦国会晤的会议室外，气氛被再次扰乱。级别低一些的美国和中国官员在人民大会堂铺着红地毯的走廊上公开争论会议的座次安排。这再次表明了围绕此次访问的紧张气氛。
Peter Parks/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
随后拜登向习近平示意。
拜登在会晤前检阅了三军仪仗队，他的访华行程将于下周一结束，这是他十年来首次访问中国。他在周四晚间出席了习近平举行的晚宴，并将于周五会见中国国家主席胡锦涛和总理温家宝等官员。
拜登因其有时会发表一些"离经叛道"的言论而闻名，他曾几次试图用一些幽默语言来活跃周四会晤的气氛。
习近平在欢迎拜登时对他说，很高兴再一次见到你......我知道你在美国非常忙于国事。拜登则回答说，你就是国事，你就是我们的国事，很高兴来到这里。
当习近平向他介绍一位中方参与会谈的人员时，拜登说了句俏皮话，请记住我上次对你说的话，如果我有像你一样的头发，我就会是美国总统了。
Brian Spegele
（更新完成）
（本文版权归道琼斯公司所有，未经许可不得翻译或转载。）
U.S. and Chinese leaders at the outset of a visit by Vice President Joe Biden stressed the importance of cooperation amid global uncertainty, with U.S. officials saying they'd received a vote of confidence in America's economy from the man expected to soon become China's top official.
Mr. Biden held his first day of meetings Thursday with Chinese officials including Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who is expected to succeed Hu Jintao as Communist Party chief next year and as president in 2013. The talks are the first high-level meetings between the world's two biggest economies since intensifying concerns about sovereign-debt problems and other woes in the U.S. and Europe began roiling global markets late last month.
Chinese state media and commentators have harshly criticized Washington for its fiscal practices in the run-up to Mr. Biden's visit, voicing concern that U.S. profligacy and political chaos could hurt China's economy and its more than $1 trillion holdings of U.S. government debt.
But U.S. officials said there was little finger-wagging Thursday by Mr. Xi, who they said instead voiced confidence in the ability of the U.S. economy to 'adapt and rebound.'
'Quite in contrast to some of this Chinese public commentary, every single one of the leaders that we spoke with today, both privately and publicly…were quite confident about the United States,' said a senior Obama administration official who briefed reporters Thursday after participating in the meetings.
Chinese state-media accounts of the meetings notably didn't include any such endorsement of the U.S., but nor did they quote Mr. Xi making the types of admonishments repeated in the Chinese press recently.
Instead, the leaders and Mr. Biden stuck to anodyne calls for closer ties. 'The economic stability of the world in no small part rests on cooperation between the United States and China,' Mr. Biden said at the outset of his meeting with Mr. Xi. 'It affects every country.'
'China and the United States have ever-more extensive common interests and we shoulder ever-more important common responsibilities,' Mr. Xi said in his opening remarks.
The positive atmosphere that both sides sought to foster was marred when Chinese officials ordered foreign journalists and members of Mr. Biden's press staff from the meeting room. The journalists had expected to listen to the entirety of Mr. Biden's opening remarks, which followed Mr. Xi's, but as Mr. Biden was halfway through his statement Chinese officials began telling the group of more than a dozen to exit the room.
A shoving match ensued between several journalists and security agents, even as some Chinese Foreign Ministry officials appealed for calm. U.S. officials were visibly displeased by the confrontation, unusual on such a high-level visit, but declined to comment. China's government issued no formal statement on the incident but officials said they were simply following standard protocol in asking reporters to leave after several minutes.
Later in the day, in another sign of the tension surrounding the visit, the atmosphere was again disrupted outside a room where Mr. Biden was meeting with China's top legislator Wu Bangguo, when lower-ranking U.S. and Chinese officials quarreled openly in the red-carpeted corridor of the Great Hall of the People over seating arrangements for the meeting.
Beyond talks on economic and other issues, Mr. Biden's visit is a chance for U.S. officials to get a closer look at Mr. Xi, who could make a reciprocal visit to the U.S. later this year. U.S. officials said Mr. Xi appeared confident and spoke candidly to Mr. Biden, though they didn't provide specifics on what he said regarding some of the bilateral relationship's thorniest issues, such as U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan and the exchange rate of China's currency, the yuan.
Mr. Biden, who will stay in China until Monday,, in his first visit to China in a decade, was welcomed ahead of the meetings by a full military honor guard. He attended a banquet with Mr. Xi on Thursday evening, and is scheduled to meet Friday with President Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao, among others.
The U.S. vice president, known for his sometimes unorthodox statements, tried several times to leaven Thursday's proceedings with some humor.
As Mr. Xi told him, 'Good to see you again… I know you are very busy with national affairs at home,' Mr. Biden replied, 'You are national affairs. You are our national affairs.'
Greeting one member of the Chinese delegation, he quipped, 'Remember what I told you last time: If I had hair like yours I'd be president.'
Brian Spegele
Mr. Biden held his first day of meetings Thursday with Chinese officials including Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who is expected to succeed Hu Jintao as Communist Party chief next year and as president in 2013. The talks are the first high-level meetings between the world's two biggest economies since intensifying concerns about sovereign-debt problems and other woes in the U.S. and Europe began roiling global markets late last month.
Chinese state media and commentators have harshly criticized Washington for its fiscal practices in the run-up to Mr. Biden's visit, voicing concern that U.S. profligacy and political chaos could hurt China's economy and its more than $1 trillion holdings of U.S. government debt.
But U.S. officials said there was little finger-wagging Thursday by Mr. Xi, who they said instead voiced confidence in the ability of the U.S. economy to 'adapt and rebound.'
'Quite in contrast to some of this Chinese public commentary, every single one of the leaders that we spoke with today, both privately and publicly…were quite confident about the United States,' said a senior Obama administration official who briefed reporters Thursday after participating in the meetings.
Chinese state-media accounts of the meetings notably didn't include any such endorsement of the U.S., but nor did they quote Mr. Xi making the types of admonishments repeated in the Chinese press recently.
Instead, the leaders and Mr. Biden stuck to anodyne calls for closer ties. 'The economic stability of the world in no small part rests on cooperation between the United States and China,' Mr. Biden said at the outset of his meeting with Mr. Xi. 'It affects every country.'
'China and the United States have ever-more extensive common interests and we shoulder ever-more important common responsibilities,' Mr. Xi said in his opening remarks.
The positive atmosphere that both sides sought to foster was marred when Chinese officials ordered foreign journalists and members of Mr. Biden's press staff from the meeting room. The journalists had expected to listen to the entirety of Mr. Biden's opening remarks, which followed Mr. Xi's, but as Mr. Biden was halfway through his statement Chinese officials began telling the group of more than a dozen to exit the room.
A shoving match ensued between several journalists and security agents, even as some Chinese Foreign Ministry officials appealed for calm. U.S. officials were visibly displeased by the confrontation, unusual on such a high-level visit, but declined to comment. China's government issued no formal statement on the incident but officials said they were simply following standard protocol in asking reporters to leave after several minutes.
Later in the day, in another sign of the tension surrounding the visit, the atmosphere was again disrupted outside a room where Mr. Biden was meeting with China's top legislator Wu Bangguo, when lower-ranking U.S. and Chinese officials quarreled openly in the red-carpeted corridor of the Great Hall of the People over seating arrangements for the meeting.
Beyond talks on economic and other issues, Mr. Biden's visit is a chance for U.S. officials to get a closer look at Mr. Xi, who could make a reciprocal visit to the U.S. later this year. U.S. officials said Mr. Xi appeared confident and spoke candidly to Mr. Biden, though they didn't provide specifics on what he said regarding some of the bilateral relationship's thorniest issues, such as U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan and the exchange rate of China's currency, the yuan.
Mr. Biden, who will stay in China until Monday,, in his first visit to China in a decade, was welcomed ahead of the meetings by a full military honor guard. He attended a banquet with Mr. Xi on Thursday evening, and is scheduled to meet Friday with President Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao, among others.
The U.S. vice president, known for his sometimes unorthodox statements, tried several times to leaven Thursday's proceedings with some humor.
As Mr. Xi told him, 'Good to see you again… I know you are very busy with national affairs at home,' Mr. Biden replied, 'You are national affairs. You are our national affairs.'
Greeting one member of the Chinese delegation, he quipped, 'Remember what I told you last time: If I had hair like yours I'd be president.'
Brian Spegele
没有评论:
发表评论