The Tibet Post

Dharamshala: During the ongoing ,China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues (S&ED) being held in Beijing, the Chinese delegation told the U.S to "respect its core interests and major concerns, and to pay particular attention to handling sensitive issues such as those regarding Taiwan, Tibet and other sensitive issues properly."

Ma Zhaoxu, spokesman of the Chinese delegation at the conference was quoted as saying" "China believes both sides should abide by the three joint communiques between the two countries and the joint statement issued during U.S. President Obama's visit to China last November"

The high level talks are being co- chaired by President Barack Obama's special representatives, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and also by President Hu Jintao's special representatives, Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai Bingguo. The talks focused on issues such as bilateral relations, cooperation in the areas of public health, customs, energy, environment and climate change, along with military ties.

China has long claimed Taiwan and Tibet as part of its own territory and, rebukes sharply any world leaders for showing or expressing any sort of sympathy with Tibetan spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama or the Taiwanese government.

When Chinese leaders warned Washington to take into account China's "core concerns" including Taiwan and Tibet. Clinton deftly replaced "Tibet" with "human rights" saying she was keen to understand China's concern on "Taiwan and human rights issues". It was not immediately clear if she had any serious differences with her host on the issue of human rights, which she regards as her own political agenda.

High profiled delegation led by US Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner abd Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not seem to have much success in getting Chinese leaders to accept her prescription on the North Korean and Iranian nuclear issues. She did manage to elicit some amount of positive verbal response from Chinese leaders on economic issues concerning market access and revaluation of Yuan but there were no agreement on paper over these matters.