Shanghai ? U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said today that she would be pushing the Chinese for a “more balanced economic relationship” with the U.S. in upcoming economic and strategic talks in Beijing.

Those talks, to be co-chaired by Clinton and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, are likely to be dominated by efforts to win China’s support to punish North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean warship. But the U.S. officials will be focused on economic issues as well.

“For trade to work in any economy and for it to produce the benefits we know it can, there must be a level playing field where domestic and international companies can compete freely and openly,” she told workers at a Boeing maintenance facility at Shanghai’s Pudong Airport.

Geithner and Clinton are leading a delegation of nearly 200 officials to Beijing as part of an effort to help President Barack Obama deliver on his pledge to double U.S. exports within five years and create 2 million jobs.