US Vice President Joe Biden's Visit to China

US Vice President Joe Biden visited China at the invitation of Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping. The meeting between the Chinese host and the US guest was carried out in a calm, peaceful and polite atmosphere without the United States dictating its traditional arrogant attitude toward China. On Beijing's side, China has also stressed its confidence in the US economy. The last time we observed such a peaceful scene in US-China public diplomacy was when Chinese and US national leaders met after the 2008 global financial tsunami. It can be observed that the similar kind of peaceful diplomatic scene has again emerged with the visit of US Vice President Joe Biden to China.
Bilateral Economic Issue
On one hand, it is because the US economy has again faced with economic difficulty while on the other hand, China's economy was also badly affected by it. When both countries have to absolutely depend on each other for economical support, China and the United States have no choice but to rise to the occasion and join hands again to go through this difficult economic time together. On the other, one of the focuses of Biden's visit to China has also come with Biden's intention in wanting to get to know this future national leader of China Xi Jinping better. In this regard, it is crucial for the United States to avoid the hardening of the US bilateral ties with China at this juncture so that when the Chinese and US leaders meet again in the near future, the meetings between them will not become somehow difficult and stiff.
During US Vice President Joe Biden's visit to China, the United States did not pressure China on issues relating to China's human rights, freedom of expression, freedom of religious, and other sensitive topics. Issue on the US stand to demand the appreciation of Chinese currency Renmibi has also been put aside. In addition, before Biden arrived in China, issue relating to the US arms sale to Taiwan has also been shelved through the message given out by the US media. As such, Biden's visit to China has given outsiders an impression that there was an added air of harmony and peace with less hostility in the public diplomacy between China and the United States. The focus point of the discussion during Biden's meeting with Chinese leaders was on bilateral economic issue only.
The US federal debt issue has triggered tremendous turbulence in international financial markets and there is a grave concern that the US economy might encounter another round of recession. As the largest creditor of US Treasury debt, how China views the economic outlook of the United States has become one of the intentions for Biden to find out during his visit to China.
On the first day of US Vice President Joe Biden's visit to China, Biden stressed that China and the United States were the two nations that held the key to global economic recovery. He said the stability of world economic will need to rely on US-China cooperation. In other words, the United States wants to move closer to China on economic cooperation. Later on, when it was Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping's turn to express his view, Xi said: "The US economy can rebound quickly. The self-repair capacity of the United States is also very strong. We believe that after the US economy has gone through the crisis, the future of US economy will be better than now." This positive view of Xi Jinping on the US economy should allow the Obama administration to have a peace of mind.
Future Prospects
During his six-day visit to China, Biden has engaged several rounds of talks with Xi Jinping. In addition, when Xi Jinping accompanied Joe Biden for his visit to Sichuan and other places, both the two leaders indeed have the opportunity to develop close personal contact. Such close personal contact between leaders from the two countries should be helpful for both sides to establish good working relationship in the coming days. Although the US Vice President does not process as much authority as the Chinese Vice President, especially in the case of China w hen Xi Jinping is expected to move up and take over the Chinese President post when it is time for the Communist Party of China to carry out national leadership transition next year, yet after all, in the case of the United States, Biden is still US President Barack Obama representative during his visit to China.
While in China, Biden told Chinese President Hu Jintao face-to-face of his intention to establish good personal relationship with Xi Jinping. Biden also said that President Obama and he hoped that Xi Jinping can continue Hu Jintao's China policy toward the United States in the coming years. If President Obama can be reelected as the second term US President next year, then such a good working relationship that Biden has already established with Xi Jinping will be helpful to further stable the development of US-China relationship. Of course, if Obama does not win in the coming US presidential election, then this will be entirely a different matter.

Hong Kong Maintains Close Economic Ties With US

Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah said that since 1983 Hong Kong began to establish currency exchange system pegged with the US currency. Although such currency peg has gone through ups and downs in the past 27 years, Hong Kong has maintained good economic relationship with the United States. He said Hong Kong has no intention to change the present currency exchange system to follow China's monetary policy.'

Tsang said this in response to a question if it would be possible for Hong and China to implement the same monetary system. He said that Hong Kong's per capita income was more than $30,000. He added that in term of economic development, Hong Kong and the United States have maintained very close relationship. As such Hong Kong has no intention to change its monetary exchange rate pegging system with the United States.

Tsang Chun-wah said that although China's Renmibi (RMB) was an important currency, it was not an easily convertible currency. This was an area Hong Kong was currently trying to assist China.

Some places in Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries also allow the use of RMB as trading currency. It is hoped that Hong Kong can become such a platform and base for RMB to rise and continue to grow strong.

Establishing Two Financial Centers
Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah opined that since China has a population of 1.3 billion people, having Hong Kong and Shanghai as its two financial centers were not many. China can have two financial centers.

On primary and secondary industries, China has already grown very strong. China is now working on third tier of industries. This should be the economic growth engine to push China's economy further ahead.

Learning From Malaysia on Islamic Finance Development
Tsang said that Malaysia's experience in Islamic financial sector and in Islamic investment as well as in public education for it were very successful. As such, one of the main reasons he visited Malaysia was to learn from Malaysia in these areas. He said that at this moment, for Hong Kong to develop the Islamic financial sector, the most important thing is to enhance public education and promotion about it and to allow more market participants to understand that the Islamic financial sector was not only for Muslims to participate only. It was a financial field that all interested investors could join and participate.

When Tsang Chun-wah accepted a joint interview with the Malaysian media, he said that Hong Kong's Muslim population was not much. But Hong Kong has a robust financial structure. Hong Kong could become a regional platform, in particularly a platform for China to participate in Islamic finance and service.

In addition, Tsang also said that the purpose of his visit to Malaysia was also to see if the bi-lateral cooperation between Hong Kong and Malaysia could further be advanced in certain direction or to develop cooperation model. He said while he hoped his visit could promote bi-lateral economic relationship between Hong and China, he also wanted to learn from Malaysia's success economic stories.

He said that when he met and talked to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib earlier, he gained many constructive views. He believed this would help to make the bilateral economic growth and cooperation between Hong Kong and Malaysia to move forward.

Country's NKRA Measure
Hong Kong Financial Secretary Tsang Chun-wah said that in order for Hong Kong to maintain healthy economic development, Hong Kong has identified six priority areas in order to diversify Hong Kong's economic base and create employment opportunities. He said Hong Kong's priority measures and Malaysian Government's measures to identify National Key Result Areas (NKRA) were quite similar in essence.

He said that the six priority areas identified by the Hong Kong Government included education services, pharmaceutical services, laboratory certification, innovation and technology, environmental industries as well as cultural and creative industries.

When Tsang Chun-wah presented his keynote address at a public forum themed as "New Economic Order in Post Global Financial Crisis Era, he said: "The top priority area concept carried out by Hong Kong holds many common grounds as Malaysia's National Key Result Area policy. Through such comparison, I can see many opportunities for cooperation between Hong Kong and Malaysia. Such cooperation opportunities can help us to achieve our common goal. We should try to create these opportunities. "