PEKING -- Chinese President Li Xiannian begins an historic, 10-day visit to the United States Sunday, the first by a Chinese head of state since the 1949 communist revolution.

Li, accompanied by his wife Lin Jiamei and a high-powered entourage of Chinese policymakers, is scheduled to cross into the United States at Niagara Falls, N.Y., Sunday following a 10-day official visit to Canada.


The Chinese president, who is about 80, is to begin formal talks in Washington with President Reagan Tuesday, pending Reagan's recovery from cancer surgery. Reagan was scheduled to host a welcoming banquet for Li Tuesday evening.

The president's talks are to focus on the Soviet Union, Indochina, and irritants to U.S.-China relations, including Taiwan and Sino-American trade disputes, said Peking-based Western diplomats.

Bilateral accords on education, culture, fisheries are to be formally signed during Li's visit, a Western diplomat said.

The two sides also hope to sign a long-delayed U.S.-China nuclear cooperation pact, which would pave the way for American nuclear suppliers to compete for China's estimated $10-20 billion reactor market, U.S. officials said.

The pact, initialled during Reagan's China visit in April 1984, has drawn stern criticism from U.S. lawmakers, who have demanded further Chinese non-proliferation guarantees. The pact would require congressional approval.

However, national security affairs adviser Robert McFarlane indicated earlier this month that Washington is confident Peking will respect the non-proliferation terms of the accord.

Energy Secretary John Herrington and Deputy Secretary of State John Whitehead asked Reagan to sign the agreement in formal recommendations sent to the White House Saturday morning, the New York Times said in its Sunday editions.

The recommendations, required by law before the president can sign such an agreement, were accompanied by a statement from Kenneth Adelman, director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, affirming that the agreement was consistent with U.S. non-proliferation policy, the Times said.

It said the conclusion of the accord followed two weeks of 'intensive interagency meetings.'

Li's delegation includes China's top energy official, Li Peng, 56, State Councillor Ji Pengfei, 75, who handles Taiwan policy, and Wang Zhaoguo, 44, head of the influential General Office of the Communist Party Central Committee.

Li, a member of China's powerful Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee and one of the nation's top economists, bluntly reminded Washington of some prominent trouble spots in U.S.-China ties in a pre-departure press conference at Peking Airport July 11.

The president attacked a recent decision by the U.S. House of Representatives to withhold all or part of a planned $51 million contribution to the UN population fund, dismissing its allegations of infanticide and forced abortion in China as 'fabrication and distortion.'

The House amendment strongly condemned the 53 million forced abortions allegedly carried out in China between 1979 and 1984 and cited persistent reports of the Chinese killing baby girls.

Peking is extremely sensitive over foreign criticism of its 'one couple, one child' family planning policy, aimed at keeping China's population from surpassing 1.2 billion before the year 2000.

Li also stressed that Taiwan remains the 'greatest obstacle' to better U.S.-China relations. Washington severed formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1979 to renew relations with Peking. But the United States is still the largest arms supplier to Taiwan, which China has considered a rebel province since 1949.

Festering U.S.-China trade disputes over textiles, grain and technology transfer will also be a major focus of the president's talks on bilateral relations, said a senior Western diplomat.

U.S.-China trade totalled a record $6.1 billion in 1984, according to U.S. statistics, balanced at roughly $3 billion for each side. U.S. commercial sources predicted this year's trade will hit the $7 billion mark.

Li and his delegation are scheduled to leave Washington July 25 to visit Chicago, where Li will formally open a new Chinese consulate, Los Angeles and Honolulu before returning to China July 31.