 US-China relations are at a critical juncture and a summit between their leaders next week must produce "real action, on real issues" such as trade, climate change and North Korean nuclear proliferation, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday. "It is up to both nations to translate the high-level pledges of summits and state visits into action. Real action, on real issues," she said in a major China policy address in Washington. Clinton urged China to let its currency appreciate faster, end discrimination against foreign companies and further open its markets to US manufactured goods and farm products. Some US analysts see Chinese President Hu Jintao's trip as the most important state visit in 30 years, as the leaders of the world's two biggest economies try to put behind them a stormy 2010 and forge more stable ties for the coming years. Her remarks were part of a week of China policy speeches by US Cabinet officials -- and a trip to Beijing by Defense Secretary Robert Gates -- aimed at setting the tone for the Jan. 19 Washington summit between President Barack Obama and Hu. "America and China have arrived at a critical juncture, a time when the choices we make -- big and small -- will shape the trajectory of this relationship," she said. On global problems, the United States wants China to "step up to more of its obligations," Clinton said. "Global recession, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, piracy on the high seas -- these are threats that affect us all, including China. And China should join us in confronting them," she said. Washington and Beijing sparred last year over longstanding issues such as US arms sales to Taiwan, the status of Tibet's Dalai Lama and human rights. They also became embroiled in spats over newer problems including deadly North Korean attacks on South Korea, South China Sea navigation rights, and trade in rare earth minerals. SEEKING HELP WITH NORTH KOREA On North Korea, Washington has held out the prospect of resuming long-dormant six-party talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia to curb Pyongyang's nuclear arms programs if Pyongyang ceases attacks that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010 and commits to denuclearization. "It is vital that China join with us in sending North Korea an unequivocal signal that its recent provocations -- including the announced uranium enrichment program -- are unacceptable and in violation of Security Council resolutions," said Clinton, urging Beijing to enforce UN sanctions against its ally Pyongyang. US and Chinese companies will sign a number of business deals when Hu visits Washington, the US Chamber of Commerce said on Friday. Myron Brilliant, a chamber senior vice president, said he was also hopeful Hu's visit would show China is serious about recent commitments to reopen its market to US beef and to fight copyright piracy by increasing the government's use of legal software. Obama, who won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, is in an awkward position as host to the head of a state that has jailed the 2010 laureate, dissident Liu Xiaobo, say activists who have criticized what they see as a muted US approach on China. Clinton acknowledged that many Chinese "resent or reject our advocacy of human rights as an intrusion on their sovereignty," but she said China's UN membership required it to respect universal rights. "We reiterate our call for the release of Liu Xiaobo and the many other political prisoners in China, including those under house arrest and those enduring enforced disappearances," she said. Clinton urged people in both countries to put aside "zero-sum 19th century" thinking about great power rivalries. "Some in the region and some here at home see China's growth as a threat that will lead either to Cold War-style conflict or American decline, and some in China worry that the United States is bent on containing China's rise and constraining China's growth," she said. "We reject those views," Clinton said.