US, China spar on rights, take softer tone on economy

“We have vigorous disagreement in the area of human rights,” U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said as the Strategic and Economic Dialogue opened. He said the Obama administration will keep raising its concerns with Beijing.

The talks covering a range of economic and diplomatic issues are aimed at letting the world's two largest economies manage, if not resolve, their often tense policy differences. Both sides pledged to use the talks to that end.

Washington pressed familiar economic themes, saying Beijing should let its yuan currency rise faster and do more to spur domestic demand, but it also welcomed reforms China has taken and admitted the U.S. budget needed tightening.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan, speaking as a session on economic policy opened, said that while the global economy was slowly gaining strength “the situation is still complicated and fraught with uncertainties.”

Japan's earthquake, excess liquidity in global money markets and Mideast unrest “have all seriously damaged market confidence,” Wang said.

By this time next year, both countries are expected to be focused on domestic politics as campaigning for a U.S. presidential election intensifies and the process of choosing a successor to Chinese President Hu Jintao gets under way.

That adds impetus to the current talks to try to find ways to manage areas of potential trouble before policymakers' attention is distracted by internal affairs.

U.S. Dollar Talk

Top Chinese officials were careful not to turn the meeting into a public mud-slinging match, and kept their comments to the media muted.

Wang, co-chair of the economic talks with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, cautioned that it takes time to correct economic imbalances — such as China's bulging trade surpluses and corresponding deficits in the United States — and implied that Washington had more to do than Beijing.

“The key to a global economic recovery still lies with the United States,” Wang said. “We are pleased to note that the U.S. economy is gradually improving and the Chinese economy as a whole is in good shape.”

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