US, China to discuss current disputes

The United States will host high-level talks with China next week aimed at addressing innumerable outstanding disagreements between the two countries.

Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew will receive State Councilor Yang Jiechi, a high-ranking foreign policy official, and Vice Premier Wang Yang on June 23 and 24, the US State Department said on Monday.

The meeting is part of “US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue” and it will be the sixth session with last one being held in Beijing in 2014.

According to the State Department, the session will address “challenges and opportunities that both countries face” in areas “of immediate and long-term economic and strategic interest.”

Despite the friendly cooperation between the two nations on many fronts, Washington and Beijing have clashed over certain international issues, including the South China Sea dispute.

Washington accuses Beijing of undergoing a massive “land reclamation” program in the Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea. It says China’s territorial claims of the man-made islands could further militarize the entire region.

The United States says its surveillance of China’s artificial islands shows that Beijing has positioned weaponry on one of the islands it has built in the South China Sea.

The two countries have also had tensions over a series of cyberattacks which the US claims China has launched against the American government agencies.

A new report by a US government worker union shows that Chinese hackers have accessed Social Security numbers and all personal information of millions of federal employees.

The hackers now have military records and veterans’ status information, address, birth date, job and pay history, health insurance, life insurance and pension information; and age, gender and race data, the report said.

Also, the US indicted five Chinese military members for “hacking” in May 2014.

 

[“source – presstv.ir”]