Obama's comments came after Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton argued earlier that China's security crackdown, the largest in years, threatened the country's long-term stability.
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER and MATTHEW PENNINGTON
Vice President Joe Biden greets Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan during the opening session of the joint meeting of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), Monday, May 9, 2011, at the Interior Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and top members of his administration raised pointed concerns Monday about Beijing's recent security crackdown on democracy advocates during the first day of high-level talks between the two nations.
Obama, meeting with the leaders of a large official Chinese delegation, voiced his concerns about the situation in China, the White House said in a statement.
The president "underscored his support for the universal human rights of freedom of expression and worship and of access to information and political participation," the White House said in a statement after Obama's meeting with Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai Bingguo.
Obama's comments came after Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had argued earlier Monday that China's security crackdown, the largest in years, threatened the country's long-term stability which the U.S. side said depended on a respect for human rights.
The world's two biggest economies clashed over America's massive trade deficit with China. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said it would be in China's self-interest to allow its currency to appreciate at a faster rate and allow Chinese consumer interest rates to rise. The stronger yuan and higher Chinese interest rates would help boost domestic demand and help lower America's trade deficit, which hit an all-time high with China last year.
But a Chinese official blamed U.S. policies for the ballooning trade gap. Commerce Minister Chen Deming told a news conference that China's currency appreciation was being carried out in a "very healthy manner." He said the United States needed to change its own policies on high-tech sales and investment as a way to spur American manufacturing.
The sparing occurred as the two nations began two days of talks aimed at addressing disputes in foreign policy and economic areas under discussions that began in 2006 during the Bush administration. Both countries hoped to use the Strategic and Economic Dialogue discussions to further ease tensions that had been inflamed by last year's U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and American unhappiness over a rising U.S. trade deficit with China at a time of high U.S. unemployment.
The dispute over human rights threatened to overshadow other issues at this week's meeting which comes three months after Obama served as host to Chinese President Hu Jintao during a state visit to Washington in January.
In recent months, Chinese authorities have pursued a crackdown that has involved a large number of arrests of lawyers, activists, journalists and bloggers. The crackdown was widely viewed as a Chinese response to forestall any Middle East-style democracy protests.
During the opening ceremony, Biden said that Obama believed strongly that protecting fundamental rights and freedoms was "the best way to promote the long-term stability of any society." Clinton said that China's actions on human rights had an impact beyond its own borders, including triggering a domestic political backlash in the United States.
Dai said in his opening remarks that China had made progress in the area of human rights, but he did not discuss the recent security crackdown.
This year's talks for the first time included high-level military leaders from both nations, a move seen as a way to defuse tensions and increase understanding between military commanders. Clinton said the inclusion of top military leaders was needed to reduce "dangerous risks of misunderstanding and miscalculation." China's military has expanded rapidly in the past 15 years, deploying missiles and naval assets that could challenge American supremacy in the region.
The talks, which will wrap up Tuesday with news conferences, were started by then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson as a way to bring pressure to bear on China on the currency issue. The Obama administration expanded the discussions in 2009 to include foreign policy concerns.
China is facing threats of U.S. economic sanctions on goods shipped to America unless Beijing halts trade practices such as its currency undervaluation. U.S. critics believe that violates global trade rules.
For their part, the Chinese, who are America's largest foreign creditor with $1.2 trillion in holdings of U.S. Treasury securities, are seeking assurances that Congress and the administration will resolve their differences and boost the U.S. borrowing limit before an August deadline. At that time, Geithner has said, Treasury will run out of maneuvering room to pay America's bills, including interest payments on U.S. debt.
In the opening economic discussions, Geithner said that a top priority would be encouraging China to adopt a more flexible currency and more open capital markets.
He said that the United States would pursue financial sector reforms that would "put more money in the pockets of Chinese consumers" as a way to boost further Chinese domestic demand for foreign-made products. U.S. briefers have said that the United States would like to see China relax controls on the amount of interest that Chinese savers can earn, a move that would provide Chinese households with more money.
Geithner seemed to soften some of the recent U.S. criticism of China's policies, possibly in a belief that the outside pressure was proving counterproductive to Chinese reformers who are seeking changes in the country's economic system.
Geithner praised the efforts, which include a decision by the Chinese last June to resume allowing the yuan to rise in value against the dollar after freezing the currency's value for two years during the height of the financial crisis. The yuan has risen by about 5 percent against the dollar since last summer. American manufacturers contend the yuan is still undervalued by as much as 40 percent.
"Over the past two years, we have seen very promising changes in the overall direction of Chinese economic policy — towards a more flexible exchange rate, a growth strategy less reliant on exports and stronger protections for U.S. companies operating in and exporting to China," Geithner said.
Vice Premier Wang Qishan, the head of the Chinese delegation and a top Chinese economic policy-maker, said that while the world economy was slowly recovering from a deep recession, the situation remained "complicated and fraught with uncertainties." He said the European debt crisis, the Japanese earthquake and nuclear crisis, and the political turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa had "all seriously affected market confidence."