Thursday's global agenda: The US goes to China

Your morning global affairs speed-read

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner meet today with high-level Chinese officials for the annual U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

Chinese President Hu Jintao opened the meeting by calling for a “new type of relationship” between the two countries, one based on cooperation not conflict.

Clinton is pressing for Chinese cooperation on everything from the Syrian uprising to North Korea's threat of a third nuclear test. Geithner, meanwhile, is addressing U.S. concerns with the Chinese currency and economic sanctions with Iran.

The high-level meeting risked being derailed before it even got started when blind activist Chen Guangcheng sought refuge at the U.S. embassy just days before Clinton and Geithner arrived in Beijing. State department officials led by Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell worked round the clock to reach a deal but the Chen incident appears to be turning into a potential embarrassment for the U.S. 

Chen told The New York Times from his hospital bed that U.S. officials pressured him “to a certain degree” to leave the embassy and that  “the U.S. government was not proactive enough.” He is now saying he doesn't trust the Chinese government to guarantee his safety and would prefer to leave the country.

"I would like to say to President Obama: Please do everything you can to get our family out," Chen told CNN.

Russia: Obama administration officials will make the case that the U.S. European missile defense plan doesn't threaten Russia during today's international missile defense conference in Moscow.

Syria: And Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) wraps up a Middle East trip during which he'd said he planned to meet with “a lot of the players” in the Syrian crisis, including officials from the Gulf states, Turkey and Jordan.

Morning speed read

Syrian security forces stormed a college campus and killed four students just hours before Syrian officials met with former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to discuss cease-fire terms.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) kept up his fight for the Balochistan's right to self-determination by penning a letter to Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani calling the country a “failed state.” 

The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution threatening sanctions against Sudan and South Sudan if they don't lay down arms by Friday. The resolution calls on the two countries to “immediately cease all hostilities; unconditionally withdraw all of their armed forces to their side of the border; activate, within one week, the necessary border security mechanisms; and immediately cease hostile propaganda and inflammatory statements in the media.”

The Security Council also announced a package of sanctions in response to North Korea's April 16 missile launch.

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sworn in as a member of Parliament.

Aid groups are under suspicion in Pakistan following last year's raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound.

Clashes between anti-military protesters and unknown attackers left 11 people dead just three weeks before presidential elections in Egypt.

---