Roundup: Xi's first state visit to U.S. culminates in Washington, charting clearer direction for bilateral ties

Chinese President Xi Jinping's first state visit to the United States culminated in Washington Friday, with policies on bilateral ties further clarified, fruitful results in cooperation achieved, and friendship deepened.

Schedule was extremely tight for Xi in the U.S. capital city. Just upon his arrival, he had a three-hour-long informal meeting with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama.

The two presidents' night stroll along the Pennsylvania Ave to Blair House, the U.S. president's official guest house, recalled people the one they made at Zhongnanhai compound in November 2014 while Obama paid a state visit to China.

Welcomed by a red-carpet ceremony with 21-gun salute at the South Lawn of the White House, Xi held formal talks with Obama, met the press, and attended a state dinner. He also met U.S. Congress leaders and attended a welcoming luncheon hosted by Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry.

Bilateral ties are further steered out, as Xi described his summit meeting with Obama as "fruitful and constructive."

When addressing the welcoming ceremony, Xi said China and the United States "have no choice but to seek win-win cooperation."

During their formal talks, he made a six-point proposal for the development of China-U.S. relations.

While jointly meeting the press, Xi stressed that today's world has entered into an era of economic globalization where countries are interdependent upon each other.

"People should give up the old concepts of 'you lose, I win' or 'zero-sum game,' and establish a new concept of peaceful development and win-win cooperation," he said.

The sound development of both China and the United States is conducive to each other and the whole world, he noted, saying the two countries' common interests go far beyond their differences.

"I sincerely hope that both China and the United States, in the fundamental interests of the two peoples and people around the world, will make concerted efforts to build a new model of major-country relationship between them," Xi said.

Meanwhile, fruitful results in cooperation have been scored, as there are as many as 49 items in an outcome list of Xi's visit.

The two leaders agreed to expand the efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions, renewing their determination to work together to advance the talks for a binding deal at the Paris UN Climate Change Conference at the end of the year.

Not shying away from hot-button issues, the two sides also agreed to set up a high-level dialogue mechanism on fighting cyber crimes.

The two leaders agreed to partner with each other on assisting global development, public health and food security.

The two countries decided to designate 2016 as the China-U.S. Year of Tourism. China pledged to support a total of 50,000 Chinese and American students to study in each other's countries, and welcomes the U.S. move to provide opportunities to as many as 1 million American students to learn Chinese by 2020.

The two countries agreed to vigorously push forward negotiations and accelerate works for achieving a high-standard, mutually beneficial and win-win bilateral investment treaty.

China and the United States recognized the importance of mobilizing climate finance to support low-carbon, climate-resilient development in developing countries, particularly the least developed countries, small island developing states and African countries, according to a China-U.S. joint presidential statement on climate change signed Friday.

"My state visit to the United States is unforgettable," Xi said at the state dinner, adding that he deeply felt the American people, just like the Chinese people, have profound friendship to each other and have high expectation for China-U.S. cooperation.

"I firmly believe, in face of unprecedented common interests and responsibilities, the future of China-U.S. relations will become better and better," he said.

Xi arrived in New York early Saturday morning for upcoming United Nation summits marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the world body at the UN headquarters. Endi