Post-APEC Xi-Obama meetings bolster China-US relations

On the issue of counterterrorism, China frankly indicated to be hesitant about directly joining the U.S.-led coalition against IS. However, President Xi repeatedly emphasized Beijing's commitment to fighting terrorism and its willingness to cooperate. China is willing to play a role in supporting political stability and preventing terrorism in the world.

In regards to military relations, both sides agreed to speed up consultations on a mutual reporting mechanism for major military operations and a code of conduct for naval and air military encounters. Keeping military-to-military contacts stable and regular has been a stated goal for Obama and Xi Jinping. The Xi-Obama talks will obviously help improve China-US military ties.

Finding new ways to facilitate trade and investment is still on the priority list of the two leaders' agenda. China announced to lift some restrictions on foreign investment. The new regulations will reduce the number of sectors in which foreign companies are required to form joint ventures with domestic business or are limited to minority stakes from 79 to 35.

During the APEC summit and the Xi-Obama discussions, both countries agreed to launch strategic studies of the Free Trade Area of the Asian Pacific (FTAAP) and expand the discussion on the Information Technology Agreement (ITA).

The FTAAP could be a bridge between the TPP and ASEAN's Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which would unite ASEAN with the six countries it already has FTAs with (including Japan, India and China). The FTAAP will create a substantially larger FTA, grouping 21 economies, which account for 40 percent of the world's population, 54 percent of its economic output and 44 percent of trade. The U.S. is one of the most important members of APEC, and it's impossible to launch any initiative on the FTAAP without the U.S.'s endorsement. This time, the agreement on "the strategic studies," though small steps, will represent big progress for building FTAAP.

The ITA agreement is another significant achievement. In fact, a year ago there existed great difference between China and the US on the ITA over whether more than 100 of the 250 or so product categories should be excluded from the final agreement. It's estimated that the global IT products market is worth about $4 trillion. So it is easy to expect that China and the U.S. both will benefit from the ITA agreement.

These examples and issues show that China and the U.S. have a huge stake in their political and economic cooperation; when they work together, the whole world will benefit.

Yu Xiang is an Associate Fellow at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

This article was first published at Chinausfocus.com To see the original version please visit http://www.chinausfocus.com/foreign-policy/post-apec-xi-obama-meetings-bolster-china-u-s-relations/