About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline



1 [1] (October 7, 2015)

handle is hein.crs/govccyr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 




FF.


mppm qq\
         p\w -- , gmmw' go
                I
 aS
 11LIANJILiN,

Updated October 7, 2015


Chinese President Xi's September 2015 State Visit


Chinese President Xi Jinping (his family name, Xi, is
pronounced Shee) made his first state visit to the United
States, and his second U.S. visit as president, in September
2015. He was the fourth leader of the People's Republic of
China to make a state visit to the United States, following in
the footsteps of Li Xiannian in 1985, Jiang Zemin in 1997,
and Hu Jintao in 2011. The visit came at a time of tension
in the U.S.-China relationship. The United States has been
critical of China on such issues as its alleged cyber
espionage, slow pace of economic reforms, island building
in disputed waters in the South China Sea, harsh treatment
of lawyers, dissidents, and ethnic minorities, and pending
restrictive legislation on foreign organizations. Even as the
White House prepared to welcome President Xi, it was
developing possible sanctions against Chinese firms and
individuals over alleged cyber-espionage against U.S.
firms. Ultimately, the summit between the two presidents
appeared to produce some progress on two priority issues
for the United States-cyber security and bilateral
commercial ties-but less on such issues as maritime
disputes and human rights. As expected, the two countries
announced further cooperation in several areas, including
climate change and military-to-military relations. They also
pledged to cooperate in a new area, global development
work.
The ke,, eStteVksi,:   ni,,,ra,, -r,

President Xi and his wife, People's Liberation Army singer
Peng Liyuan, started their U.S. trip on September 22 in the
state of Washington, where President Xi's schedule
included visits to Boeing Company and Microsoft
Corporation, participation in a China-U.S. Internet Industry
Forum, and a policy speech in Seattle. On September 24,
President Xi and Madame Peng flew to Washington, DC,
where they were met by Vice President Joe Biden and
Second Lady Jill Biden. That evening, President Obama
and President Xi engaged in two and a half hours of
conversation over a no tie, private dinner at Blair House.
On September 25, President Xi was accorded an arrival
ceremony on the White House South Lawn, with a 21-gun
salute, the standard for leaders on state visits. He and
President Obama met in the Oval Office, and in an enlarged
meeting in the Cabinet Room, and then held a joint press
conference in the White House Rose Garden. President Xi
and Madame Peng were the guests of honor at a lunch at the
State Department-also customary for state visits-hosted
by Vice President Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry.
That afternoon, President Xi traveled to Capitol Hill to meet
with congressional leaders and other Members. In the
evening, President Xi and Madame Peng were honored with
a state dinner in the East Room of the White House, the
ninth state dinner of the Obama presidency. From


September 26 to 28, President Xi visited the United Nations
headquarters in New York for the 70th meeting of the U.N.
General Assembly. Among other things, he announced
major new Chinese contributions to U.N. peacekeeping
operations and military assistance to the African Union.



As has been the practice since 2011, the two countries did
not issue a joint statement. Instead, they conveyed
outcomes through the two presidents' joint press
conference; a Joint Presidential Statement on Climate
Change; identical negotiated bullet points on economic
relations and cyber security, issued separately by each
country; and bullet points on other issues, issued separately
and not identical in wording. Several general statements
about the bilateral relationship were included in China's
outcomes document, but not in U.S. documents. They
included a Chinese assertion that the United States and
China ... agreed to continue the endeavor to build a new
model of major-country relationship ... based on mutual
respect and win-win cooperation. They also included a
Chinese statement that, China respects the traditional
influence and practical interests of the United States in the
Asia-Pacific and welcomes the United States to continue to
play a positive and constructive role in regional affairs.

The new model language was first proposed by President
Xi in 2012, when he was China's vice-president. U.S.
officials, including President Obama, initially mentioned
the concept in their public remarks, reportedly as a way of
signaling that the United States agreed on the need to try to
head off strategic rivalry. Since 2013, however, U.S.
officials have grown concerned that China is using the
mutual respect part of the formulation to suggest,
misleadingly, that the United States has committed to
respect China's core interests, which include maintenance
of Communist Party rule and defense of sovereignty and
territorial integrity, including China's claims to Taiwan and
features in the East China Sea and South China Sea. While
the United States no longer uses the term, it has not
objected to China's continuing to reference U.S. agreement
on the broad concept.

ou,.omes               ,,,a,- of  ~a,--'....,'.n'

The White House presented the Xi state visit as an
opportunity to expand U.S.-China cooperation on a range of
global, regional, and bilateral issues of mutual interest,
while also enabling President Obama and President Xi to
address areas of disagreement constructively. Much of the
summit focused on areas of disagreement, discussed below.

Cybersecurity. President Obama stated on September 16
that his administration viewed alleged Chinese cyber theft


.O 'T