Treasury secretary to visit China next week
WASHINGTON (AP) - March 27, 2008 The Treasury Department said Thursday that Paulson will meet
with Chinese leaders and follow up on an agreement the two
countries reached last year on environmental cooperation.
Treasury's announcement came a day after the White House said
that President Bush had sharply confronted China's President Hu
Jintao during a telephone call about the violence in Tibet. The
White House said that Bush had stressed the need for restraint and
the necessity for the Chinese to consult with representatives of
the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet.
China has defended its use of force against anti-Chinese
protesters in Tibet, describing demonstrations that broke out in
the capital city of Lhasa on March 14 as riots and violent crimes.
The demonstrations have been the most sustained uprising against
Chinese rule in Tibet in almost two decades and have put a
spotlight on China's human rights record at a time when it was
hoping for a smooth run-up to this summer's Olympic games in
Beijing.
The Treasury announcement said Paulson would be in Beijing on
April 2 and 3 for meetings with Chinese leaders and also for a
speech at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. That speech will focus
on an agreement on the environment that the two countries reached
during high-level economic talks last December.
At that time, the two countries agreed to cooperate over a
10-year period in efforts to address various environmental issues,
including climate change, energy security and promoting the
sustainable use of natural resources.
The environmental cooperation agreement came at the third round
of talks known as the strategic economic dialogue, which were
launched in 2006 in an effort to ease economic tensions between the
two nations as the U.S. trade deficit with China soared.
American manufacturers contend that China has artificially
devalued its currency by as much as 40 percent against the dollar
as a way of making Chinese products cheaper for U.S. consumers,
while making American products more expensive in China.