Chinese President Xi Jinping met with representatives of the U.S. business, strategic and academic communities at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 27.
Xi listened attentively to his U.S. guests and responded to their comments. He expounded on China’s development prospects and strategic intentions, and the country’s position and propositions on developing its relations with the United States.
He said as long as both sides see each other as partners and show mutual respect, coexist in peace and cooperate for win-win results, China-U.S. relations will get better.
This fully demonstrates that China, as a responsible major country, always bears in mind the common good of humanity and hopes to stabilize and improve China-U.S. relations, so as to inject positive energy into world peace and development.
To maintain steady, sound and sustainable development of China-U.S. relations, it is crucial for the United States to correctly understand China’s development prospects and strategic intentions and see that the two countries’ respective success is an opportunity for each other.
Xi pointed out that the Chinese economy is sound and sustainable. China has the confidence and determination that its development has a bright future. Last year, China registered one of the highest growth rates among the major economies and accounted for over 30 percent of global growth as before.
China has come to where it is today after overcoming all kinds of difficulties and challenges. China did not collapse as predicted by the “China collapse theory,” nor will it peak as forecasted by the “China peak theory,” he said.
The country will continue to advance high-quality development and Chinese modernization, enable the Chinese people to live a better life, and contribute more to sustainable development in the world, Xi noted.
He said China is planning and implementing a series of major steps for comprehensively deepening reform, and steadily fostering a market-oriented, law-based and world-class business environment. This will create broader development space for U.S. and other foreign businesses.
Win-win cooperation is the trend of the times, and it is also an inherent property of China-U.S. relations. U.S. businesses are welcome to participate more in Belt and Road cooperation, attend large-scale business events such as the China International Import Expo, and continue to invest in China, cultivate the market and grow their business.
Faced with the recent years’ new and evolving situation in China-U.S. business ties, the two sides should stay committed to mutual respect, mutual benefit and equal-footed consultation, follow economic and market rules, expand and deepen mutually beneficial business cooperation, respect each other’s development rights, and work for win-win outcomes for the two countries and the world at large.
Economic globalization may encounter headwinds, but the historical trend will not change. There is no way out for “decoupling and breaking the chain,” and opening-up and cooperation are the only choice.
The mindset of zero-sum game characterized by binary opposition has long been a thing of the past, and a genuinely secure world should be one featuring deep integration and interdependence. Creating scientific and technological barriers and severing industrial and supply chains will only lead to division and confrontation.
The China-U.S. relationship cannot go back to the old days, but it can embrace a brighter future. Last November, Xi met with U.S. President Joe Biden in San Francisco. The two heads of state had an in-depth exchange of views on strategic and overarching issues critical to the direction of China-U.S. relations and reached important consensus. The most important understanding they reached was on the need to stabilize and improve China-U.S. relations. In the past few months, Chinese and U.S. officials have worked to follow through on the common understandings of the two presidents, maintained communication and made progress in the political and diplomatic, economic and financial, law enforcement and counternarcotics, climate change and people-to-people fields.
The San Francisco meeting between Xi and Biden has inspired all sectors of China and the United States, as well as the world at large. The two sides should follow the strategic guidance of the two heads of state and make the San Francisco vision a reality.
China and the United States have common interests both in traditional areas such as trade and agriculture, and in emerging areas such as climate change and artificial intelligence. They also have common interests in promoting world economic recovery and settling international and regional issues. The two countries should strengthen dialogue and cooperation.
The U.S. side should work with China in the same direction, develop a right strategic perception of China, handle sensitive issues properly, maintain the momentum of recovery and stabilization of its relationship with China, actively explore the right way for the two countries to get along, and promote the sustained, steady and sound development of China-U.S. relations.
The history of China-U.S. relations is one of friendly exchanges between the two peoples. Its existing chapters are written by the people, and the future will of course be created by the people.
It is hoped that people from all sectors of Chinese and American societies will have more mutual visits and exchanges, expand common ground and mutual trust, overcome various distractions, and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, in an effort to bring more tangible benefits to the two peoples and inject more stability into the world.
Since this year, people-to-people and cultural exchanges between China and the United States have been rich and varied, building more bridges of close affinity between the two peoples and injecting more momentum into China-U.S. relations. For example, a table tennis delegation from the University of Virginia visited China and attended the China-U.S. Youth Ping-Pong Exchange; students from high schools in Iowa and the state of Washington visited China for exchanges; China’s contemporary operatic dance “Dongpo: Life in Poems” debuted in the United States; the exhibition “Anyang: China’s Ancient City of Kings” was staged at the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington DC.
China-U.S. relationship is one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world. Whether China and the United States have a cooperative or confrontational relationship bears on the well-being of the Chinese and American peoples and the future of humanity.
In handling its relationship with the United States, China always has a sense of responsibility for history, for the world and for the people. China is ready to work with the United States to push for steady, sound and sustainable development of bilateral relations to bring more benefits for the two peoples, provide more public goods for the international community, and build an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world of lasting peace, universal security, and shared prosperity.
(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People’s Daily to express its views on foreign policy and international affairs.)
