'US doesn't want to contain China'

SHANGHAI - The United States has no interest or intention of encircling China in the Asia-Pacific region, and both countries have clear mutual interests in seeing the Six-Party Talks work more effectively, a former US diplomat said on Monday.

China and the US need to be in close contact to assure there are no misunderstandings "in a difficult era whose pace of change is unprecedented in human history", Christopher Hill, former US assistant secretary of state, told the International Conference in Commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of the Shanghai Communique.

Hill said that the US' return to Asia "has less to do with China, and much more to do with the fact that the Obama administration is disengaging from wars in the Middle East and South Asia".