Rice: US invites Xi for state visit   

白宮邀請習近平訪美 反對“兩國對抗不可避免”之說

United States National Security Advisor Susan Rice answers questions after her speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Feb 6, 2015. [Photo: China News Service/Zhang Weiran]

The United States government has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping for a state visit this year, US National Security Advisor Susan Rice said on Friday.

Talks about such a visit by Xi to the US this year has been circulated for some time as Xi is also expected to visit the United Nations in New York City in September for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the international body.

If Xi makes his trip to the US in September, it will be his third visit to the US in the last three and half years. He last visited the US in June 2013 with the historical shirt-sleeves summit with Obama at the Sunnylands retreats in Rancho Mirage, California. He also visited the US in February, 2012 as China's vice-president, meeting both Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden and toured Muscatine, Iowa, a small town where Xi first visited in 1985 as a county chief of North China's Hebei province.

"With China, we're building a constructive relationship that expands practical cooperation across a wide spectrum of issues from global health to non-proliferation, even as we confront real differences over human rights, cyber-enabled economic espionage, and the use of coercion to advance territorial claims," Rice said on Friday in a talk on US national security strategy held at the Brookings Institution, where she was a senior fellow before joining the Obama administration.

Rice touted the US leadership by citing its efforts in dealing with the threat of the climate change. She said the US is making smart decisions today that will pay off for generations, adding that the ground-breaking climate commitment with China will limit both nations' greenhouse gases and bend down the global emissions curve.

Obama paid a landmark visit to China last November, when he and Xi reached a long list of bilateral cooperation agreements, including on climate change, military confidence building and reciprocal extended visa program.