U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chinese officials agreed Saturday to focus their governments' efforts on stabilizing the battered global economy and combating climate change. After a morning of talks during her inaugural visit to China as America's top diplomat, Clinton and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said a regular U.S.-China dialogue on economic issues would be expanded to include troubling security issues. «It is essential that the United States and China have a positive, cooperative relationship,» Clinton told reporters at a joint news conference with Yang. She said that they also agreed on the need to develop jointly clean energy technology that would use renewable sources and safely store the dirty emissions from burning coal, according to a report of Associated Press. With the export-heavy Chinese economy reeling from the U.S. downturn, Clinton sought to reassure China that its massive holdings of U.S. Treasury notes and other government debt would remain a good investment. «I appreciate greatly the Chinese government's continuing confidence in United States treasuries. I think this is well-grounded confidence,» Clinton said. «We have every reason to believe that the United States and China will recover, and together we will help lead the world recovery.» Yang said China wants to see its foreign exchange reserves _ the world's largest at $1.95 trillion _ invested safely and wanted to continue working with the United States. «I want to emphasize here that the facts speak louder than words. The fact is that China and the United States have conducted good cooperation, and we are ready to continue to talk with the U.S. side,» Yang said. Beijing is the last stop on Clinton's weeklong visit to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China. She was to meet China's president and premier as well as tour a power plant before leaving Sunday. The emphasis on the global economy and climate change highlight the growing importance of U.S.-China relations.
