China-bound US lawmakers said Friday that their visit aimed to deepen cooperation on pulling the world economy out of its slump and to ease any worries about investments in skyrocketing US debt.

Democratic Representative Rick Larsen and Republican Representative Mark Kirk, the co-chairs of the congressional US-China Working Group, arrive at their first stop, Hong Kong, on Monday.

In separate interviews with AFP, Larsen and Kirk said they would hold talks with officials and business leaders to seek ways to enhance Sino-US cooperation on reviving the global economy and to deepen diplomatic and business relations.

"The focus of the trip is principally on the economy, and how the United States and China, through joint action, can improve each other's prospects," said Kirk, whose home state is Illinois.

"I think if it's done well, with the US leading the developed world and China leading in the developing world, it can help bring others along," said Larsen, who hails from Washington state, a major entry point for Chinese goods.

The delegation will visit Hong Kong to assess on the global downturn's impact on the financial services sector; hard-hit Guangzhou province to see the response to rising unemployment; Shanghai to appraise the state of Chinese manufacturing; and Beijing for talks with government officials.

"We'll be looking at their stimulus measures versus ours, and how the Chinese government is responding, quite frankly, to unemployment in their country," said Kirk.

The lawmakers said they also expected to discuss irritants in the US-China relationship, such as the Chinese black-market for US goods like movies, as well as the human rights picture ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Larsen hoped the talks would offer insight on the shape of the "China 3.0" economy after the global slowdown — such as whether Beijing will try to stimulate domestic demand and lower its reliance on exports.

"I think that in the long term, anything China does that creates consumer demand is good news for Chinese trading partners like the United States, providing us an opportunity to fill some of that demand," Larsen told AFP.

He said he expected that the Chinese side would air concerns about the US economy including the safety of Beijing's huge investment in US Treasury Bonds.

Larsen said he was ready to explain that President Barack Obama was working to turn around the economy and stressed: "We have never defaulted on anything and we're not going to default on anything now."

The delegation will also raise prospects for dramatically deepening the US diplomatic presence in China by opening 10 new "presence posts" to handle visa and other non-classified matters in major cities.

"The US-China relationship is the most diplomatic relationship of the 21st century. When looked at in that light, you see our diplomatic presence is very inadequate," said Kirk.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will also be in China for high-level talks on climate change, while US President Barack Obama is expected in China in the second half of 2009.

While Larsen expected the trip to focus on the economy, he was mindful that his visit comes ahead of the sensitive 20th anniversary of China's crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.

"I don't necessarily expect it to come up, but it's always in the back of my mind because we here in the US support democracy, support democratic movements and certainly want to see people treated fairly and with the dignity they deserve," he said.

Kirk said the lawmakers also hoped to sound out Beijing on North Korea and "what would Chinese policy be if there were a nuclear detonation" by the hermetic Stalinist country.

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