Beijing:
China and the United States wrapped up three days of high-level meetings here on Tuesday with some modest trade and energy agreements, but the United States made little progress on winning China's backing for international measures against North Korea over the sinking of a South Korean warship.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said China would take "a period of careful consideration in order to determine the best way forward in dealing with North Korea as a result of this incident," suggesting there was no immediate prospect of a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning the attack.
Mrs. Clinton tried to put the best face on China's response, saying President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao had conveyed their sorrow at the loss of the 46 sailors on the Cheonan, which sank after being torpedoed by what South Korea says, was a North Korean submarine.
"We expect to be working together with China in responding to North Korea's provocative action and promoting stability in the region," Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference after the meetings ended. "It is absolutely clear that China not only values but is very committed to regional stability."
But Chinese officials did not mention North Korea by name during the entire meeting, and Dai Bingguo, a state councilor who oversees foreign affairs, called for the international community to "calmly and appropriately handle the issue, and avoid escalation of the situation."
For his part, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said that Mr. Hu recognized that moving China's currency closer to a market rate "is an important part of their broader reform agenda." But he noted, "This is, of course, China's choice," reflecting the fact that China is not likely to loosen the dollar peg on its currency in response to outside prodding.
The United States did get concessions on two issues of importance to American investors in China: a change in rules governing innovation that now disadvantage foreign companies, and a pledge to submit a revised offer to join the World Trade Organization's agreement on government procurement by 2010.
The two countries also signed a raft of modest agreements on issues ranging from clean energy and shale gas exploration to trade finance between the export-import banks of the United States and China. They also agreed to cooperate on nuclear safety and on preventing infectious diseases.
With few major policy agreements, the United States and China played up the less tangible, personal sides of the relationship. Mrs. Clinton took part Tuesday morning in a ceremony to promote people-to-people exchanges. The Chinese government has agreed to help pay for 10,000 students to study for doctorate degrees in the United States, while President Obama has set a goal of sending 100,000 American students to China over the next four years.
The focus was even lighter in the two encounters Mrs. Clinton had with the Chinese news media. In the first, where she appeared jointly with Mr. Geithner on Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV, the two were quizzed about child-rearing styles and movie-going habits.
Among other topics covered: the T-shirts Mr. Geithner wore when he was a student in Beijing in 1981, the Sunday volleyball games played by Mrs. Clinton and her husband Bill Clinton when they were newlyweds in Fayetteville, Ark., and Mrs. Clinton's admiration for the treasury secretary's hair: "He always looks so good, you know. It's maddening."
On the CCTV talk-show program "Dialogue," Mrs. Clinton was asked about how she balanced the demands of work and family and about the preparations for the wedding of her daughter, Chelsea.
There were some tougher questions, including how the United States feels about being the world's No. 1 debtor nation, whether it was veering into economic protectionism, and whether the Obama administration allowed domestic politics to influence foreign policy.
Mrs. Clinton managed to get in a few points, including the American complaint that new Chinese government procurement laws put foreign technology companies at a disadvantage. She also voiced outrage over North Korea's sinking of the South Korean warship; something the Chinese government has not done, having expressed skepticism about its neighbor's role.
"We are very concerned about the sinking of the North Korean vessel," Mrs. Clinton said. "The 400-page independent report determined that North Korea did it. Don't ask me why. I don't understand why they would do that, but that is the conclusion of the independent investigation."