President Obama plans to meet President Xi Jinping of China next month for the first time since Mr. Xi’s installation as the leader of the world’s most populous nation, as the two leaders try to establish a working relationship on critical issues like North Korea, the global economy and allegations of state-sponsored cyber attacks, the White House announced on Monday.
Mr. Obama and Mr. Xi will meet on June 7 and 8 at Sunnylands, the Walter and Leonore Annenberg estate in Southern California, the White House said. Mr. Obama already had travel scheduled on the West Coast at that time, officials said, so they decided that Sunnylands, a less formal setting, would provide a better environment for the two men to get to know each other. To prepare for the meeting, Thomas E. Donilon, the president’s national security adviser, will travel to Beijing from May 26 to 28.
“The U.S.-China agenda is big and complex, and we have a lot of issues to discuss and work though,†said Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the White House. “As we have said before, the relationship has elements of cooperation and elements of competition. We have no illusions about this. Our approach to China seeks to expand the areas of cooperation in managing regional and global challenges, and we seek to manage our differences in a way that prevents disruptive and unhealthy competition from undermining our interests and those of our allies in Asia.â€
The meeting will come at a significant moment for the United States and China. As a recent flurry of threats from North Korea underscored, Mr. Obama is encouraging China to play a greater role in restraining the erratic conduct of its isolated neighbor. Moreover, China holds about $1.25 trillion in United States debt, more than any other foreign country, but its share of total debt has fallen in recent years to 7 percent from 10 percent, easing American reliance on Beijing.
As for cyber technology issues, the United States has accused China of state-sponsored cyber attacks that it believes have led to the theft of billions of dollars in intellectual property and government documents.
The meeting with Mr. Xi in California will be part of a busy few weeks in foreign relations for Mr. Obama. He plans to attend the Group of Eight summit meeting in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in mid-June, where he will meet with longtime allies as well as President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. On Monday, the White House announced that Mr. Obama will make a weeklong journey to Africa starting in late June.
Sunnylands, a sprawling estate more than 100 miles east of Los Angeles, has played host to seven American presidents, as well as members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the British royal family, and Hollywood figures like Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart and Ginger Rogers, according to its Web site.
