Beijing, Nov 16 (Inditop.com) US President Barack Obama arrived in Beijing Monday after telling Chinese youths in Shanghai that the US does not seek to contain China’s rise and that the country was a “strong and prosperous and successful member of the community of nations”.
Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping greeted Obama at the Beijing airport. Obama is in China on a four-day state visit. He arrived in Shanghai Sunday night.
Obama is to meet Chinese leaders and exchange views on bilateral relations and major international and regional issues. He will also visit the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, two of China’s heritage sites.
Earlier in the day in Shanghai, Obama held a dialogue with Chinese youths at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.
He said the world is fundamentally interconnected.
“The jobs we do, the prosperity we build, the environment we protect and the security we seek are all shared,” Xinhua news agency quoted Obama as saying. “One country’s success does not come at the expense of another.”
Calling the US-China relations “positive, constructive and comprehensive”, Obama said the relationship opens the door to partnership on key global issues such as economic recovery, development of clean energy, stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and the surge of climate change, and the promotion of peace and security in Asia and around the globe.
Obama reiterated that the US would continue to fully support the one-China policy, and would be very pleased to see the improving cross-strait relationship.
He said the US and China were not “predestined adversaries”, as the two countries “share much in common” while “are different in certain ways”.
“I have been clear in the past the United States supports a one-China policy. We do not want to change that policy or approach,” he said.
He noted it was his “deep desire and hope” to continue to see great improvement of relations between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.
Obama said during the first trip to China since taking office in January that he would discuss economic recovery, climate change and stopping the spread of nuclear weapons in his talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
He said that the US would further expand its youth exchanges with China by expanding the number of students studying here to 100,000.
China is a part of Obama’s Asian tour, following his visit to Japan and Singapore. He is slated to leave Beijing for South Korea Wednesday afternoon.
