美国国家安全顾问赖斯访华

Meeting with Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi following her arrival in Beijing, Susan Rice says the two countries are moving to strengthen their cooperation, but still need to work through their respective disputes openly.

"At the same time we managed to strengthen and deepen our cooperation on issues ranging from development to non-proliferation and also at the same time we also improved our cooperation in areas like the military to military realm. And yet we also find ourselves facing real issues and challenges and to the extent that we are able to surface those challenges in candour and openness, I'm confident that we will be able to work through them as we have many others in the past."

For his part, Yang Jiechi says he's confident both sides can handle their differences in a proper manner.

"In general China-US relations have been stable and the two countries have maintained consultation and cooperation on bilateral, regional and global issues. However, there are still differences between us that need to be tackled properly."

Rice's visit to China comes on the heels of this month's ruling against China in the South China Sea arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines, which the Chinese government says has the United States fingerprints all over it.

As such, the dispute over issues in the South China Sea is going to be the major topic Rice will be addressing as part of her meetings with Chinese officials.

Jin Canrong, vice dean of the School of International Studies at Renmin University, says he believes Rice has a dual-track purpose in being here.

"First of all, the U.S. wants to claim its ignorance, since it's commonly believed in the Chinese mainland that the South China Sea arbitration is a political action, which was most likely manipulated by the U.S. Secondly, the U.S. wants to draw a bottom line for China, and might also try to find out China's real situation."

Officially, Rice is in China to help set the groundwork for the forthcoming G20 Leader Summit in September.

Teng Jianqun, a senior researcher at China Institute of International Studies, says Rice will likely determine if there is interest in a one-on-one meeting between her President and Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 in Hangzhou.

"Rice, as the U.S. National Security Advisor and also the top aide to President Obama, is expected to lay out Obama's priorities for the meeting, including the arrangement of his schedule in China during the G20 Summit, which she will determine with Chinese officials during her visit."

This year's G20 Leaders Summit is due to be held in Hangzhou on September 4th and 5th.

Apart from meeting with officials in Beijing, Susan Rice is also travelling to Shanghai where she'll meet with business executives to try to determine what working conditions are like for businesses operating in China.

She's also expected to meet with a number of Chinese private citizens.

Her visit is set to end on Wednesday.

For CRI, I'm Xie Cheng.