Obama-Xi talks to focus on US-China economy ties

ECONOMIC ISSUES are expected to dominate the second day of a summit between US President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Xi Xinping, but cyber-security is also on the agenda. The US wants China to move towards a more consumer-led economy, narrowing the trade gap. Mr Obama said on Friday the US wanted nations to play by the same rules while Mr Xi spoke of a new blueprint. But Mr Obama added that cyber-security was an area of growing importance. The US president has in the past criticised what he called Chinese state-sponsored cyber attacks on the US. However, last week he defended US phone and web surveillance programmes. Speaking after his first session of talks with Mr Xi on Friday, Mr Obama described cyber-security as “uncharted waters”. “We don’t have the kind of protocols that have governed military issues and arms issues, where nations have a lot of experience in trying to negotiate what’s acceptable and what’s not,” he said. On Friday, the Guardian newspaper published what it described as a US presidential order to national security and intelligence officials to draw up a list of potential overseas targets for US cyber-attacks. The White House has not commented on the report. The summit, at the Sunnylands retreat in California, is the first meeting between the two men since Mr Xi became president in March. It has been billed as a chance for the two to get to know each other. The BBC’s North America editor, Mark Mardell, says the the series of leaks about US national security may embarrass President Obama enough to make the summit a little less pious, and a bit more realistic. Relaxed start The two men - looking relaxed and informal - met and shook hands under a shaded walkway at the Sunnylands estate just outside Palm Springs. Mr Xi said he and Mr Obama were meeting “to chart the future of China-US relations and draw a blueprint for this relationship”. For his part, Mr Obama said the US welcomed the rise of a peaceful China and wanted “economic order where nations are playing by the same rules”. The US and China are the world’s two largest economies. The US runs a huge trade deficit with China, which hit an all-time high of $315bn (£204bn) last year. Last week, the Chinese firm Shuanghui agreed to buy US pork producer Smithfield for $4.7bn (£3.1bn) - the largest takeover of a US company by a Chinese rival. Agencies