Summary
China and the United States Wednesday launched high-level talks, with Chinese President Xi Jinping urging the world's two biggest economies to break old patterns of confrontation.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is leading Washington's team with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, told the delegations the US was committed to a "new model" of great country ties with China.
- US welcomes rising China --
While Xi did not address the territorial issues directly, he repeated that China was committed to establishing "friendly relations with its neighbours and beyond".
This year marks 35 years since the establishment of formal US-China ties, and trade between the two giants ballooned to more than $520 billion last year, or a quarter of the world's total trade.
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