US President George W. Bush arrived in Beijing Saturday evening for a three-day visit to China at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao.

 

 

Bush's presidential plane Air Force One touched down around 18:40 at Beijing's Capital Airport, where the US president was greeted by Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Zhou Wenzhong and US Ambassador to China Clark T. Randt.

 

Also arriving aboard the presidential plane were Bush's wife Laura Bush, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.

 

Two young Chinese women presented bouquets to Bush and his wife at the airport.

 

This is Bush's third China trip as US president since 2001 and also his first China visit in his second term of presidency. He will stay for nearly 40 hours here. Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao are to meet with President Bush, and they will discuss a wide range of issues.

 

"The two sides will have an in-depth exchange of views on China-US relations and major regional and international issues," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao Thursday.

 

"We expect that Bush's visit will increase consensus, step up mutual trust, expand exchanges and cooperation and promote Sino-US constructive and cooperative relations in the 21st century in an all-round way," Liu told a regular news briefing.

 

Bush described Sino-US relationship as a complex and important one. While the two countries have got increasing trade and dialogue and cooperation, there is still work to be done on intellectual property rights, currency and market access, said Bush in a round-table interview with Asian reporters at the White House prior to his Asian tour.

 

But Bush acknowledged that the United States and China "do have good cooperation" on trade, and can also work together in the war on terror, on advancing the Doha Round multilateral trade talks and in the areas of energy and fighting avian flu.

 

China is the third leg of Bush's four-nation Asian tour. He visited Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) and attended the Nov. 18-19 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Busan of the ROK. He will also visit Mongolia after his China tour.

 

Bush attended the APEC economic leaders' meeting in Shanghai in October, 2001, and paid a two-day working visit to China in February 2002.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 20, 2005)