Top Chinese, U.S. diplomatic officials to meet in Hainan

Top diplomatic officials of China and the United States will hold an unofficial meeting in South China's Hainan Province within the next few days, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.

Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would meet to exchange views on bilateral relations and issues of common concern, according to an agreement reached by the two countries, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said.

The meeting between Dai and Clinton, the special representatives of Chinese President Hu Jintao and U.S. President Barack Obama, immediately followed the talks of Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Sunday at Qingdao Airport, eastern Shandong Province.

Chinese analysts said that the unofficial meeting in Hainan could serve as an important occasion for the two countries to address some major and sensitive issues in China-U.S. relations.

Yuan Peng, president of the Institute of American Studies of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said that the two sides could take this opportunity to arrange the schedule for Hu's upcoming visit to the United States.

Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed last week that it had started preparations for Hu's visit early next year.

Reports said that Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state in charge of Asian and Pacific affairs, said Clinton would talk with Dai about plans for G20 and APEC meetings in November and Hu's visit to Washington.

Relations between the two countries have stumbled since earlier this year over issues ranging from the U.S. arms sales to Taiwan to China's currency exchange rate.

China and the United States could have deep communications on those issues more thoroughly through unofficial meetings and try to clear up the misunderstandings between them, said Ni Feng, vice president of the Institute of American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Obama will visit Indonesia and India in November, when he will also attend the G20 Summit in Seoul of the Republic of Korea and the APEC Summit in Japan's Yokohama.

Yuan said the meeting in Hainan could help ease China's doubts and worry on the U.S. strategic containment on the Asian country.

Pang Zhongying, professor of School of International Studies, Renmin University of China, said the United States would take the opportunity of this unofficial meeting to clarify its foreign policies on China and the Asia-Pacific region so as to ward off misunderstandings.

"It's an opportunity for the United States to send a positive signal to the region and the world that China-U.S. relations are controllable and manageable as long as they deal with the problems that crop up between them through communication and dialogue," Pang said.