With the global economy mired in recession, the United States and China begin talks Monday to seek a solution together despite tensions over currencies, the US budget deficit and the huge US trade gap with China. Ultimately, how well the US efforts succeed could help determine how fast the economy recovers and how many US jobs might be created once it does. Other issues, such as climate control and North Korean nuclear ambitions, also will command attention. Few expect the talks to bridge the sharp differences between Beijing and Washington. But both governments want to use the occasion to help build a less confrontational relationship. Three years ago, Henry Paulson, then Treasury secretary, used the talks to press Beijing to let its currency, the yuan, rise in value against the dollar, to make it cheaper for Chinese to buy US goods. US manufacturers blame an undervalued yuan for record US trade deficits with China - and, in part, for a decline in US jobs. The US efforts have yielded only mixed results. The yuan, after rising in value about 22 percent since 2005, has scarcely budged in the past year. Beijing had begun to fear that a stronger yuan could threaten its exports. Chinese exports already were under pressure from the global recession. But the Obama administration intends to remain focused on the trade gap. It plans to stress at the talks Monday and Tuesday that China can't rely on US consumers to pull the global economy out of recession this time. In part, that's because US household savings rates are rising, shrinking consumer spending in this country. “Perhaps the most important message we are going to have for the Chinese is that there has been a fundamental change in the US economy,” said a senior administration official, who briefed reporters on the meetings under rules that did not permit use of his name. “The US economy is going to recover, but it is going to be a different type of recovery than what the Chinese have seen in the past.” For the US, suffering from a 9.5 percent unemployment rate, the ultimate goal is to help put more Americans to work. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will be co-leaders of the US delegation, joined by their Chinese counterparts, Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai Bingguo. The meeting will include officials from various US departments and agencies and President Barack Obama will address the opening session. The Chinese are bringing a delegation of 150 officials, one of the largest ever to visit the US.
