Chinese Premier Wen Jiaobao said at the 14th China-EU leaders’ meeting that China was willing to help the EU with its debt crisis. European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso attended the summit, which had been postponed from last year. Van Rompuy said the Chinese and EU economies were “so interdependent that change in the growth rate in one of the two strategic partners has a direct and palpable impact on the other one”. Chinese and EU leaders vowed in a joint statement to prioritize a swift and comprehensive resolution of China’s quest to be recognized as a full market economy. Both sides decided to soon hold the first meeting of a China-EU group focused on high-tech trade. EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht welcomed Beijing’s decision to take a greater role in resolving the euro-zone debt crisis, saying it “will make a difference”.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping met U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House on February 14. Obama said that the United States welcomes China’s rise, and that strong cooperation between the two powers is good for the rest of the world. Xi held talks with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who also accompanied him to Los Angeles. Pentagon gave Xi Jinping a 19-gun salute and rolled out an honor guard welcome featuring 350 troops. Such an elaborate greeting is highly unusual for a visiting Vice President, and suggested the Obama administration attached great importance to Xi’s trip. In his talks with U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Xi said military ties were an important component of the Sino-U.S. relationship and that they should serve the interests of a cooperative partnership based on mutual respect. Xi is also a Vice Chairman of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC). China has launched a trade promotion effort that includes a drive to buy American goods worth USD27 billion. Both nations have also agreed to negotiate guidelines for export-credit financing. The multibillion-dollar spending spree would include microchips, machinery and electronic materials, Deputy Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said in Washington. China also agreed to open up its massive car insurance market to foreign competition, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said.

Xi also visited the small town of Muscatine in Iowa, which he had visited 27 years ago when he was a low-level official in Hebei investigating pig farming techniques. The trade delegation signed agreements with U.S. grain companies to buy a record 12 million metric tons of soybeans. COFCO and Sinograin signed deals in Des Moines, Iowa, with companies such as Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge and Cargill. China and the United States also signed a five-year deal to guide discussions on the security and safety of food, and sustainable agriculture at a symposium in Iowa. Xi Jinping announced that China agreed to significantly improve market access for American films, in particular 3D, Imax and other enhanced-format movies. “This agreement with China will make it easier than ever before for U.S. studios and independent filmmakers to reach the fast-growing Chinese audience, supporting thousands of American jobs in and around the film industry,” U.S. Vice President Biden said in Los Angeles. The Motion Picture Association said the deal would allow more than 50% more U.S. movies into China.

“There is a saying that Americans have lost, while China is taking advantage of bilateral trades and economic relationship. Such a view does not square with facts,” Xi told a business forum, adding each U.S. household had USD1,000 more disposable income a year because of the lower cost of imported Chinese products. He also renewed his call for the U.S. to relax controls on hi-tech exports to China, saying the share of U.S. products in China’s total hi-tech imports had dropped from 16.7% to 6.3%. Vice President Xi’s U.S. visit was deemed a success, even by the skeptical U.S. press. “This is a little unusual for any foreign leader, particularly a Chinese foreign leader, to want to expose themselves as much to the American public as he has,” U.S. Vice President Biden said. After the U.S. trip, Vice President Xi visited Ireland and will also go to Turkey before returning to Beijing on February 22.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited China together with five Ministers and a 40-strong delegation of business leaders. He met President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and other top officials. China and Canada agreed to boost bilateral investment and promote energy exports to China. Premier Wen Jiabao said: “China is ready to expand imports of energy and resource products from Canada and enhance cooperation in clean and renewable energy, energy-saving, environmental protection, and the peaceful use of nuclear energy.” Canadian exports of beef and tallow to China, which China halted in 2003 after Canada discovered a case of mad cow disease, will resume immediately. The two sides also wrapped up 18 years of negotiations on a foreign investment promotion and protection agreement. Canadian businesses signed 23 deals in Beijing worth nearly USD3 billion. The firms involved included aircraft and train builder Bombardier and telecom companies Telus and Bell Canada. Mandarin and Cantonese are Canada’s third-most spoken languages. More than 1.3 million Canadian residents are of Chinese origin. China became Canada’s second largest trade partner in 2003, but Canada’s trade deficit with China has expanded from CAD3.9 billion in 1997 to CAD26.8 billion in 2006. One way to help redress that imbalance would be through Canadian energy exports, which is part of Harper’s recently stated plan to move away from shipping oil exclusively to the U.S.

Premier Wen Jiabao said that China was considering playing a bigger role in resolving Europe’s debt crisis by getting involved in European rescue funds, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Beijing. Wen repeated pledges of support for Europe, but made no financial commitments. “China is investigating and evaluating ways, through the IMF, to be more deeply involved in solving the European debt problem via ESM/EFSF channels,” Wen said. Merkel held talks with President Hu Jintao and NPC Chairman Wu Bangguo in Beijing, while Premier Wen Jiabao accompanied her and her 37-member delegation to Guangzhou.
Merkel wrapped up her fifth official visit to China after breakfast with Guangdong Party Secretary Wang Yang. China is Germany’s largest Asian trading partner, and Germany is China’s top trade partner within the European Union, with business equivalent to its trade with Britain, France and Italy combined. Germany’s imports from China reached €77.27 billion in 2010, while it exported €53.79 billion worth of goods to China in the same year.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping will meet U.S. President Barack Obama in the White House on February 14. Invited by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Xi will also visit Iowa and California. The leaders would “discuss a broad range of bilateral, regional and global issues”, a White House statement said. “No matter what changes affect the international situation, our commitment to developing the Sino-U.S. cooperation should never waver in the face of passing developments,” Xi said at a Beijing gathering to mark 40 years since U.S. President Richard Nixon made his historic trip to China. “In dealing with major and sensitive issues that concern each side’s core interests, we must certainly abide by a spirit of mutual respect and handle them prudently, and by no means can we let relations suffer major interferences and ructions,” Xi added. Military issues and the strategic situation in the Asia-Pacific are expected to feature heavily in Xi’s discussions.