Online Reporter
BEIJING. — In a meeting closely watched by the world, Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump yesterday agreed on a new vision of building a constructive bilateral relationship of strategic stability.
The new vision will provide strategic guidance for China-US relations over the next three years and beyond, President Xi said when holding talks in Beijing with Mr Trump, who is on a three-day state visit to China — the first such visit in the past nine years.
President Xi defined the nature of “constructive strategic stability” as a positive stability with cooperation as the mainstay, a sound stability with moderate competition, a constant stability with manageable differences, and an enduring stability with promises of peace.
Mr Trump said he will work with President Xi to strengthen communication and cooperation, properly handle differences, and make bilateral relations better than ever before.
Both leaders agreed that China-US relations were the most important bilateral relationship in the world today.
“Looking back at the course of China-US relations, whether or not we could have mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation is the key to whether the relationship can advance steadily,” President Xi said at yesterday’s welcome banquet.
“We must make it work, and never mess it up,” President Xi said, adding that both China and the United States stood to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation.
During the two leaders’ formal talks, President Xi spoke of the latest round of trade talks between Chinese and US officials, lauding the “generally balanced and positive outcomes.”
“This is good news for the people of the two countries and the world,” he said, calling on the two sides to sustain the good momentum that they have worked hard to create.
The Ministry of Commerce said yesterday China was ready to work with the United States to continuously expand the list of cooperation and shorten the list of problems.
In the current trip, Mr Trump is accompanied by top US executives, including Apple’s Tim Cook, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Tesla’s Elon Musk, whom he called outstanding representatives from the US business community.
“They all respect and value China. I strongly encourage them to expand cooperation with China,” Trump said. The business leaders said that the successful meeting between Xi and Trump has injected new impetus into bilateral economic and trade cooperation and provided certainty for the world economy.
“China will only open its door wider,” President Xi said. American companies were deeply involved in China’s reform and opening up, and the US side was welcome to enhance mutually beneficial cooperation with China.
Prior to yesterday’s talks, President Xi hosted a welcome ceremony for Trump outside the Great Hall of the People, featuring military band performances, a 21-gun salute and a march-past of the guard of honour.
Mr Trump said that it was a great honour to visit China, hailing the very good relationship between the two countries.
Mr Trump said he and his Chinese counterpart had enjoyed friendly communication and worked out many important issues, calling President Xi “a great leader” and China “a great country,” and expressing tremendous respect for him and the Chinese people.
After the talks, the two leaders visited the Temple of Heaven. Impressed by the more than 600-year-old UNESCO World Heritage Site, Trump said that as great nations with wise and great peoples, the US and China should deepen mutual understanding and strengthen friendship between their peoples. — Xinhua
