China urges US to lift export controls

But in their annual bilateral dialogue, US officials continued to press Beijing on its allegedly undervalued yuan, as a way to redress China\'s $273 billion trade surplus with the United States.

"The way to resolve this imbalance is to ease the export control regime of the United States towards China and to encourage US exports to China rather than restricting Chinese exports to the United States," Chen Deming, the Chinese trade minister, told reporters.

Chen said that Washington\'s forex argument over the trade issue between the world\'s two largest economies "is not founded."

Over the past three years, he said, China\'s overall trade surplus has continued to decline and fell to about $180 billion, or 3.1 percent of gross domestic product.

By international standards, that is "a very healthy share," he said.

"We have a balanced trade with all other countries except the United States," he added.

Earlier US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner opened the two-day US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington by placing China\'s need for a more flexible exchange rate and more open capital markets tops on a list of things to discuss.

He also listed China\'s need for banking reforms to boost that country\'s private sector, and the need for "a more level playing field" in trade and investment between the two economic superpowers.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan called addressing economic imbalances "a long process."

"It\'s not something we can do overnight," he said, speaking through an interpreter.

But he noted the country had made progress since last year\'s talks.

"China has made headway in combating intellectual property infringement, promoting the use of legal software, and improving policies regarding indigenous innovation and government procurement," Wang continued.

He pressed Washington to "take credible steps to relax high-tech export controls vis-a-vis China, recognize China\'s market economy status, accord fair treatment to Chinese companies investing in the United States and refrain from politicizing economic and trade issues."

In the same way that Washington asks Beijing for a schedule on how it will address US complaints, Wang said, China is seeking a timetable on when the US export controls and other issues would be resolved.

Chinese firms seeking to buy sensitive US technologies or invest in US tech firms -- especially those with security- or military-applicable technologies -- must get approval, and denials and delays have angered Beijing.

In the past three years Chinese mobile network equipment giant Huawei has been stymied in two attempts to buy US technology companies, and was also blocked on national security reasons from selling equipment to top US mobil provider Sprint-Nextel.

Both sides emphasized the progress they had made on economic relations, and stressed that cooperation will remain crucial for the global recovery from the 2008-2009 economic downturn.

But Geithner called on China to adopt a "new growth model, driven by more domestic demand, with a more market-based economy and a more sophisticated financial system."

Separately, Geithner also highlighted the need for China to strengthen intellectual property rights and to be more welcoming to foreign investors.

Wang suggested that the United States needs to do more on its own to strengthen the world economy.

"The key to global economic recovery still lies with the United States," he said.

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