China, commenting about their bittersweet relation with the United States, said on Sunday that "it is up to the United States to improve relations".

The relations between two nations have been on the downside in the last few weeks, mainly due to arms sales involving U. S. and Taiwan and President Barack Obama's recent meeting with the Dalai Lama.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, speaking at a news conference which was held on the sidelines of the National People's Congress' Annual Meeting, said, "The responsibility for the difficulties in China-U. S. relations does not lie with China". Mr. Yang further said, "The arms sale and meeting had undermined China's interests.

The United States should take seriously China's position and respect China's core interests". Mr. Yang revealed that the two nations are presently holding "in-depth and candid discussions", but did not elaborate his comment, and gave away no other details. Previously, the two trade-heavy nations had a major conflict, when Google Inc. accused that its e-mail accounts were compromised from computers traced to China.

This was followed by a tough criticism of the censorship laws of cyberspace by China and others by U. S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. China in turn lashed out at Google and accused U. S. of what it labeled "Information imperialism". Foreign Ministry said that remarks made by Clinton "damaged bilateral relations".