PRODUCTIVE AND FRUITFUL
The summit of Xi and Obama is deemed as "extremely productive and fruitful" as it has yielded a series of agreements and extensive consensuses on boosting cooperation on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global issues.
A long list of 49 tangible results was produced by the two sides, with new and important progress in such areas as investment, people-to-people exchanges, climate change, and coordination and cooperation in multilateral affairs.
The two heads of state issued a China-U.S. joint presidential statement on climate change, reiterating their resolve to work together towards an ambitious, successful outcome of the upcoming climate conference in Paris.
The statement, a highlight of Xi' s visit to Washington, specifies new steps the two sides will take to deliver on pledges made last year to slash their greenhouse gas emissions.
These include China' s decision to launch a national carbon cap-and-trade system in 2017 to help contain the country' s emissions, and establish a 20-billion-yuan (3.1-billion-U.S.-dollar) fund to help other developing countries combat and adapt to climate change.
Development charity Oxfam described China' s significant financial pledge as a "game-changer," and the environmental group World Resources Institute said it was a "watershed moment" in decades of climate agreement negotiations.
Not shying away from hot-button issues, the two sides also reached important consensus on their joint fight against cyber crimes, agreeing to step up investigation assistance and information sharing on cyber crime cases, and establish a high-level dialogue mechanism to address the issue.
The agreement on cyber security has been applauded by experts as a "significant and welcome development."
"This is a very important agreement," commented James Lewis, director and senior fellow of the Strategic Technologies Program at the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"It has the potential to end a serious source of friction between the U.S. and China. Both sides were flexible and frank," Lewis said.
The two countries also agreed to vigorously push forward negotiations and accelerate work for achieving a high-standard, mutually beneficial and win-win bilateral investment treaty (BIT).
As for the development of bilateral military-to-military relations, the two sides completed new annexes on air-to-air safety and crisis communications. At the invitation of the United States Pacific Command, the Chinese Navy will participate in the RIMPAC-2016 joint naval drills.
The two countries have also decided to designate 2016 as the China-U.S. Year of Tourism. China pledged to support a total of 50,000 Chinese and American students to study in each other's country, and welcomed the U.S. move to provide opportunities for as many as 1 million American students to learn Chinese by 2020.
