Talks in Beijing also expected to consider Korean nuclear issue

Beijing will pressure Washington over maritime issues during the upcoming annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue, as the United States' increasing military presence in the South China Sea is among China's major concerns, officials told China Daily.

China will bring up topics related to its major concerns, including the Taiwan question, Tibet and maritime security, and it will respond to the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, which the US is expected to raise, two sources familiar with the matters said on condition of anonymity.

The two countries have differing pursuits on major issues at the strategic level. However, the two still have many common interests, they said.

Whether it is over the South China Sea or the Korean Peninsula, the two countries have a shared security goal to maintain regional stability, they said.

Beijing announced on Monday that the annual dialogue will take place in Beijing on June 6 and 7.

China hopes to "properly tackle differences" alongside the US, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said.

The dialogue, which started in 2009, has become the highest-level, regular bilateral communication channel for the world's two largest economies to compare notes on key issues concerning diplomacy, security and economy.

Almost at the same time, the US State Department made the announcement about the S&ED in Beijing, saying US Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew and Secretary of State John Kerry, as President Barack Obama's special representatives, will be joined for the dialogue by their respective Chinese co-chairs, Vice Premier Wang Yang and State Councilor Yang Jiechi, as President Xi Jinping's special representatives.

It said the dialogue will focus on the challenges and opportunities that both countries face on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global areas of immediate and long-term economic and strategic interest.

Observers noted that the eighth dialogue will be the last to be co-chaired by the Obama administration.

On the economic track, Nathan Sheets, US undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs, reaffirmed on May 24 the Obama administration's commitment to reaching a bilateral investment treaty agreement before Barack Obama's presidency ends.

But that prospect has been dimmed as the administration is struggling to try to get a divided Congress to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), something Obama wants as a presidential legacy.

(China Daily USA 05/31/2016 page1)