BEIJING — Chinese officials and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton agreed Saturday to step up their cooperation on the global economic crisis and climate change, while treading carefully around the human rights issues that have often strained Washington's relationship with Beijing.
In the final day of Clinton's inaugural diplomatic trip to Asia, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said his government had agreed in principle to her proposal to add discussions of environmental and security issues to the high-level economic talks that dominate the official relationship.
"The two sides believe that energy and the environment will play an increasingly important role in the growth of bilateral relations," Yang said at a news conference after a meeting that ran more than an hour.
Clinton has been eager to expand discussions between the two countries, believing U.S. cooperation with the Asian giant is key to easing many world problems, including security challenges from North Korea and Iran.
Yang and Clinton announced that the two countries have agreed to divide their discussions into a "strategic" track, which will include political and environmental questions, and an economic track.
The two countries' relationship has been built around a "strategic economic dialogue" between top Chinese officials and then-Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson. Under Clinton's proposal, she and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner would be closely involved in talks. It remains unclear which Chinese officials would take part.
Yang made no commitment on how China, the world's leading emitter of greenhouse gases, would deal with climate change.
Although the Chinese government acknowledges the problem, it is heavily focused on strengthening its economy to provide jobs, and believes the developed world needs to put up more of the money to deal with the problem. Yang said China's biggest contribution to easing the economic crisis was going to be its effort to continue to expand its economy.
Clinton said that promotion of human rights "is an essential aspect of our global foreign policy" and that she had brought up the subject with Yang, as U.S. officials do regularly with the Chinese government.
On Friday, speaking with reporters, she said that though the United States needed to continue to press human rights issues, it could not allow them to stand in the way of progress with the Chinese on other urgent areas of discussion.
